Immortality in the Verse
by BillieJean476
Summary: Harry Potter being the Master of Death would obviously live long enough to see the human race reach the stars.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

26\. That is what Harry is, forever 26. It took Harry a few years to realise it, but it soon became apparent that he wasn't aging. He thought he knew what it meant to be Master of Death, he thought that at the next moment of his demise he would have a choice to survive or move on, to board the train. He was wrong. Nine years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry had reached his physical peak and ever since he hadn't aged. Harry had always thought that being the Master of Death would mean he had a choice in his immortality, but no his immortality was part of him now. Harry Potter would never die.

As his friends went on with their lives Harry charmed his appearance to match their age, he didn't want anyone asking questions, even Ron and Hermione. Harry was determined though, he thought that he could experience whatever his friends were doing even if he would eventually outlive them. Harry quickly became the head of the Auror office at the newly founded United Kingdom Magical Government. In the wake of the war the Ministry of Magic had been disbanded and the wizards and witches of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales formed the United Kingdom Magical Government, a government that encompassed all of the United Kingdom and not just Britain. The United Kingdom Magical Government had sought out the survivors of the war and put them in law enforcement positions soon after its formation. Harry had agreed to take the position of an Auror officer, mainly because he wanted to do something and not just stew in his immortality. But by taking the position of Auror, Harry unwittingly became the poster boy for the new Government and with Ron, Neville, Seamus, Dean with him they all became famous as the heroes of the United Kingdom. Harry, Ron and Neville had all been raised in Britain, while Seamus and Dean had been raised in Wales and Ireland respectively. All of them being educated in Scotland made sure that the new Government's Auror department pleased all members of the new combined members of the United Kingdom wizarding population and that they appealed to all four quadrants of the new government. While all of them recognised their positions and purposes, they all made sure that they did a good job to back it up, as such it didn't take Harry long to achieve the position of Head Auror.

At 28 Harry left the Auror department leaving Justin Finch-Fletchley as his successor. Harry had no concerns about leaving the government, since its formation the majority of the government consisted of the younger generation. This generation modernised the wizarding world for the better, they were instrumental in the formation of the United Wizarding Parties of the World conference, modelled after the United Nations and the introduction of technology into the wizarding world. Harry growing up in the muggle world understood that technology couldn't be used at Hogwarts because of magical interference, but he never understood why they used quills instead of pens or parchment instead of notebooks. When Harry offhandedly mentioned this to the United Kingdom Magical Government Leadership Council which consisted of the leaders of magical England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the magical leader of England being his friend Kingsley Shacklebolt, his comment surprised them in a way that he hadn't expected. It seemed that the wizarding world's motto had been "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", this led to the introduction of modern practices into the wizarding world and began the research into magically compatible technology which would be successfully achieved within six years.

Leaving the government Harry was content in his accomplishments and hoped that they would stick after his departure. Harry had been the last one to leave the government, all his friends had moved onto other things. They had all said that they weren't really government employees, but that they were just helping the wizarding world back onto its feet. Ron had joined George in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and now operated the Hogsmeade branch. Neville had accepted a Herbology apprenticeship under Professor Sprout whom was looking to retire and wanted Neville to take over at that point. Dean had become assistant editor at the Daily Prophet and was looking at the promotion to editor in a couple of years. Seamus had taken the position of Wizarding Sport Correspondent which meant that he toured the Quidditch circuit as a commentator for the WWN and often wrote for the Prophet on the subject.

Harry's friends had also reached milestones in their personal lives. Ron was married to Hermione and Neville was engaged to be married in Autumn. Dean had been living with his girlfriend for about a year and Seamus was a single father. Harry had always envisioned himself with a family, something he didn't have as a child. But he was hesitant to start a family that he would eventually outlive. Unfortunately, Harry's girlfriends had read his attitude as him being non-committal. Harry had dated Ginny on-and-off for a few years, everyone had thought they would end up together, but eventually Ginny wanted to get married and be a mother, so they broke up. Harry and Ginny were still friends despite their break up which confused their friends, but Harry said that just because they weren't meant to be, didn't mean they couldn't be something else. Harry had subsequently had a causal relationship with Parvati Patil, they both knew it wasn't serious and just fun, ultimately their relationship boiled down to sex. Eventually Parvati's radio show went national and she began constantly touring and they both decided that they should put an end to their relationship because of her schedule. Harry and Cho had gotten together for a few months until her parents got into her head that she shouldn't be with someone who didn't want to get married. Last Harry heard about Cho was that she had a baby with some artist, she named her baby Cedric. While that slightly disturbed Harry, he was just glad she didn't named him Harry, god knows there were enough Harrys, Harolds and Harriets out there now after the war. Harry had currently been enjoying a causal relationship with Gabrielle Delacour, a downright sexy woman with virtually zero inhibitions. Gabrielle, or Ella as Harry called her could never settle on a single relationship with a guy, despite wanting to marry someone she stated that none of her suitors were as fun as Harry.

Harry never had an official occupation after being an Auror. The papers referred to him as an adventurer, explorer, zoologist, magizoologist and photographer among others. After working off a hangover by helping Hagrid carve the Hallowe'en pumpkins, Harry had rediscovered his interest in magical creatures while chatting with Hagrid. Harry had subsequently travelled all over the United Kingdom exploring places that many had not and observing the magical and non-magical species that lived there. Harry's photographs had been published in many newspapers and his research had been incorporated into the Care of Magical Creatures classes at Hogwarts and other schools around the world. Harry sometimes spoke in the sixth and seventh year classes of Hagrid's subject which he thoroughly enjoyed. Despite Harry altering his appearance to make it look like his supposed age which nowadays would be just shy of forty, he still often had young twenty-somethings ask suggestively if he wanted to take their photos.

It was at the Leaky Cauldron which was now managed by Neville and his wife Hannah Abbott that Harry got the inspiration for his next adventure. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville were all celebrating Hagrid's completion of his wizarding education. For the better part of six years Hagrid had been enrolled in a correspondence course aimed at wizards who had never finished their education for one reason or another. During his time at the ministry Harry had made sure that Hagrid got his wand fixed and a written apology from the minister of the time who had ordered Hagrid's wand to be snapped as Hagrid did not commit the crime that he was charged with. Harry vividly remembered the bone-crushing hug the Hagrid had given Harry and how happy he had been, but it was when Hagrid had mentioned that he wished it had happened all those years ago so that he could've finished school and been what Hagrid referred to as a proper wizard that Harry spearheaded the campaign to institute the correspondence course for people to finish their education at their own pace. After years and years of hard work Hagrid had officially become a "proper wizard", he stated that it was one of the happiest moments of his life. But it was when Charlie Weasley, who often wrote to Hagrid discussing various magical creatures, arrived at the celebration to surprise Hagrid with a framed moving wizard photograph of Norbetta with her new batch of hatchlings which gave Harry inspiration.

Dean had written to Harry a few days earlier about the completion of a magic compatible video camera and asked if he wanted to take it for a few months on his next journey to test it out. The morning after Hagrid's graduation celebration Harry had replied to Dean that he would like to test the camera and planned to travel with Charlie Weasley back to Romania and make the dragons the subject of the film.

When Harry arrived in Romania he discovered that being the Master of Death had an effect on the dragons. Harry had suspected this during his travels, but could never confirm it. The dragons didn't show aggression towards Harry, it wasn't as if they were scared or submissive towards him but they knew that they couldn't hurt him and as such showed him respect. Charlie was amazed by Harry's skills with the dragons, but just chocked it up to his affinity with the species because of the Horntail incident. When Harry asked about the Hungarian Horntail that he faced in his fourth year, Charlie grimaced and confessed that she had contracted an illness a few months ago and passed away but not before she had laid a batch of eggs, although Charlie and the rest of the dragonkeepers were afraid that she had passed on the illness to her unborn and that they would never hatch.

Harry spent months filming the dragons, he sent some test footage to Dean who loved it and said that the film was a hit around the office and people wanted to see more wizarding films and that he hoped to edit the footage into a forty minute film to release to the public with Harry's permission. Harry had agreed to let Dean release the film, but asked if he could release it under a pseudonym. Harry had been wondering for a long time if his work was being so well liked just because he was Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived or the Chosen One, this would put it to the test.

Six months after giving Dean his permission Harry received word that the first ever wizarding film was being released worldwide and the public was saying that the film's director Scott Ian, which was the pseudonym Dean had given Harry was rivalling the great Harry Potter as the modern wizarding world's greatest animal documentarian. Harry was giddy with his films success and that he had finally received praise for his work, not the praise of the Harry Potter's work. Due to popular demand Harry released a follow up film chronicling the hatching of the Horntail hatchlings. Three of the seven eggs hatched and only one survived past a week, Charlie had given the honour of naming the hatchling to Harry because Charlie joked that Harry was its mother due to the fact that the first thing it saw after hatching was Harry and it imprinted on him, Harry named him Flint. Dean said that the world loved the follow up and that they praised the director's emotional connection with Flint as the film accurately portrayed the struggle of the hatchling and the viewers cheered when it beat the illness and thrived as a newborn against the odds. Harry stayed with Flint for four years only returning home for special occasions and to see Teddy and sometimes Ella. On Flint's fourth birthday he was already fully grown and completely docile and loyal towards Harry, it was on that day that Harry climbed atop Flint's back and they flew, it was amazing and Harry captured the moment perfectly on camera. The footage that Harry sent to Dean from that day was worldwide news as Scott Ian had become the first ever dragon rider, while Harry, Ron and Hermione had once ridden a dragon before as had other wizards this was the first time a dragon willingly accepted a rider. That was when Scott Ian died, the editor from the American counterpart of the Daily Prophet had sent a photographer to get pictures of Scott Ian, who had never been photographed, and the American photographer got so much more. The photographer sold his images at an extremely high price to every magical newspaper in the world who wanted pictures not only of Scott Ian, but photos of him becoming the dragon rider.

The headlines all read that Harry Potter was the "Dragon Master" as the papers had dubbed him, the photographer had gotten high quality photographs that proved Scott Ian the dragon rider was none other than Harry Potter. Harry only stuck around a couple months after that, Flint while still completely loyal to Harry was ready to leave the nest, literally. Harry returned to his home in the Scottish country at the age of 56, the news that Harry Potter was the Dragon Master had made it hard for him to live in Grimauld Place anymore, and his new home had a spare room for Teddy when he and his wife Victorie Weasley came to visit and it was secluded enough for Flint to visit Harry which he did a couple of times year.

For twenty-six years Harry Potter disappeared from the public eye, he stopped exploring and photographing, he essentially retired after all that is what old men do. Harry Potter was 82 when he was next spotted by the papers. He was attending the joint funeral of his best friends Ron and Hermione, they had been killed by traditionalist wizards, an extremely small faction of wizards that refused to be modernised, they were mostly made up of the remaining members of the old pure blood families. The traditionalists made their views known that the old ways were the right ways and they were willing to kill for it, they had gone after Ron and Hermione because they along with Harry had been a large part of the modernisation of the wizarding world. Harry was distraught, they had just had dinner the night before, his best friends had been murdered and Harry couldn't even hurt those responsible because all two dozen members that made up the traditionalists were either killed in the firefight that occurred as they were leaving Ron and Hermione's home or tracked subsequently using knowledge from forcefully extracted memories to determine their location. Harry said everything he should have at the funeral and at the wake he said goodbye to all his friends and family, they asked why he was saying goodbye, the answer was that he was going away, far away, no camera, just him and they probably wouldn't see him again. Harry's friends understood and wished him well because they knew they couldn't follow him and he departed.

Harry's travels were an excuse, he essentially exiled himself because of the realisation that he was going to outlive all of his friends had hit home in a way that he couldn't ignore. Before departing he combed Hogwarts' Forbidden Forest, he wanted to find the Resurrection Stone, he wanted to talk to his friends again. It took Harry fourteen weeks to find it and that was with Grawp, his wife and kids as well as Firenze helping him, nevertheless he found it. He had been in the forest before when he taught with Hagrid, but it was now only because he was looking for it that the stone called to him. The stone knew its master was in need of its services, but after the fourteen weeks Harry only stored the stone in his mokeskin pouch that Hagrid had given him all those years ago. Once Harry had turned the stone, he sensed it, Ron and Hermione were happy in the afterlife, they didn't want to be called back, but on the other hand he also sensed that others were happy to be called, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore and his parents among them. Harry thought that perhaps another time he might seek their counsel and guidance, perhaps.

It was when Harry was travelling through Australia that he saw something he didn't expect to ever see again. A magnificent bird, singing a magnificent tune. Fawkes. Harry hadn't seen Fawkes since the Battle of Hogwarts and had hoped that Fawkes had shacked up with some equally beautiful female phoenix and was living a happy life. Harry was gaping at the sight of the bird as it glided gracefully and landed atop Harry's shoulder. Fawkes nuzzled his long neck against Harry happily, Harry felt similarly.

Fawkes and Harry had been travelling companions now for close to two decades, perhaps out of loneliness, insanity or clarity Harry had begun talking with Fawkes. Harry and Fawkes were able to communicate to some extent as phoenixes were extremely intelligent and it seemed like they ought to chat, one immortal to another. Harry and Fawkes mainly stuck to unpopulated areas of the world in their travels, Harry had stopped charming his appearance and now looked like his peak twenty-six year old self, even though Harry was a century old, Fawkes and Harry had agreed that people would still recognise his scar so they avoided people in general. But they were soon faced with a reason to catch up with the magical world again. They found a herd of thestrals all lying dead on the floor of a forest in New Zealand, it was concerning. They could no longer find any kneazles in North America. Sheep became a rarity in Russia. Magical and non-magical creatures alike were dying. Fawkes and Harry needed to find out why.

Harry with Fawkes atop his shoulder apparated into Diagon Alley under the invisibility cloak, as soon as they apparated Harry was out of breath, but not from exhaustion, with Harry always in his peak physical form it was hard to make him puffed. He was breathing in dirty air, he looked up and saw what he had thought was regular British fog, but realised it was smog. After spending so much time away from civilisation in various countryside's, the cities had become polluted, Harry wondered if the pollution had something to do with the death of the animals, he progressed forwards with Fawkes atop his shoulder and he saw the posters. Posters plastered all across the walls of Diagon Alley, they read "Exodus - Humanities Only Chance of Survival is Across the Stars."

"Shit" was all Harry managed to say, Fawkes warbled in agreement.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author responses to reviews of the first chapter of Immortality in the Verse posted on either this site, Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **Jhotenko (Chapter 1):**

Promising start. I like how even as Harry keeps busy, you get a sense of hopelessness from him. Immortality is a frightening burden, and his fear of connecting with others shows this.

I hope you eventually let Harry comes to terms with what he has become. Regardless I'm eager to see the progression into the world of Firefly.

Keep up the good work, and I look forward to your next chapter.

 **Jhotenko (Chapter 2):**

This chapter feels like a massive info-dump instead of a story. Perhaps break it up a bit by showing glimpses of what the magic world is doing? This would also have the benefit of stretching the chapter out a bit more.

Regardless, you've bridged the gap between now and Earth's exodus nicely. I look forward to your take on Harry Potter in Joss Whedon's masterpiece.

 **Author Response:**

 _Thank you for the feedback Jhotenko, it is true that the chapter was an info-dump as such I didn't make it too long. This was needed to fill in the gaps of Chapter 1. The next chapter will detail the magical world's activity since Harry's exile. You stated in your review that you looked forward for Harry's involvement in the Firefly "Verse", unfortunately this probably won't happen until Chapter 4. (SPOILER) Harry and Wash are friends before Wash pilot's Serenity._

 **Skendo:**

Ooh ooh :) A new HP x Firefly that's actually written well! I'm hoping you'll continue it all the way to the end! So many decent HP x Firefly fics have been abandoned and it kills me :"(

 **Author Response:**

 _Skendo, thank you for your review. I agree that there are too few Harry Potter and Firefly crossover fanfictions. I have read some good ones in the past, but I don't think there are any currently being written besides mine. I hope this would spark other people's interest to also write their own. The story "Browncoat, Green Eyes" By Nonjon and "Stepping Into the Sky" By Raul Fictitious are okay. "Space Wizard" By Jrf Steel is good, but isn't very lengthy. "Alone in the Verse" By M0untainC1mber also had promise but was abandoned._

 _Thank you for the support, BillieJean._

 **Emperor Of Pandemonium:**

Pretty good. Few things that need fixing:

1\. Harry only spent two years as an auror here did he? From 26 to 28? Maybe he joined earlier but the way the story is told, it comes across that way.

2\. The grammar in places is worded wrong and makes it hard to understand what you mean to say on the first read.

3\. Also the idea that Harry wouldn't notice something like every city being polluted and the world being slowly uninhabitable for 2 decades is a bit much.

 **Author Response:**

 _Thank you for writing a comprehensive review. It made me go back to my source document and correct some mistakes._

 _I didn't plot out an in-depth timeline for this story, more of a vague story outline. But the story states that the Ministry was disbanded soon after the war and the United Kingdom Magical Government has formed in its wake. The United Kingdom Magical Government quickly sought out fighters and intelligent young people to staff the new government, including Harry and his friends. So let's say that Harry was nineteen when he was recruited and seeing that he left at twenty-eight that would mean he spent nine years with the Aurors, and sometime during his tenure as an Auror he became Head Auror._

 _I went back and fixed some spelling mistakes and filled in some words I had missed out while writing, it is just something that happens with me. I write the story and somehow I managed to skip over random words. I hope that the story was readable anyway, because even after two proof reads those mistakes still made it through._

 _That will be addressed in the next chapter._

* * *

 _Chapter 2_

By 2030 everyone knew that the Earth was polluted. Recycling and using solar energy is what most people did as their part to save the world. People understood the impending threat of global warming, but ultimately disregarded it because they believed it wouldn't be a problem for hundreds of years, after they would be gone, it would be someone else's problem. They were wrong.

By 2030 scientists discovered that the Earth could no longer sustain its population and its natural resources were heavily depleted because of the booming population. This knowledge was not released to the public. Instead the situation was openly discussed behind closed doors in secret United Nation sessions. For the first time ever almost every nation put aside their differences to create a solution that would enable mankind's survival after the demise of Earth. In early talks the effort was broken into two main parts, survival on Earth and survival outside of Earth. The Commonwealth and Russia were tasked with investigating the possibility of survival on Earth through the creation of bunkers and sanctuaries, these yielded no useful results. North America and the Chinese Republic were tasked with investigating the possibility of survival outside of Earth. While almost every nation was secretly conducting research on how to save the human race, publically they pumped out new measures to battle climate change and the rise in pollution and occasionally held the odd "World Aid" benefit. The public was oblivious to the real threat that they were facing.

By 2036 the research conducted by the North Americans and the Chinese Republic finally yielded results. They had discovered a form of mass environmental manipulation called terraforming that would enable them to rewrite the natural processes of a planet or moon and replace it with a process similar to that of Earth. This would enable humans to breath oxygen, reproduce, plant crops and raise animals in the same conditions as Earth. This coupled with the knowledge that several planets and moons existed in multiple star clusters that could support the terraforming process, which had been discovered a decade previous, started the secret global support into space exploration and mass terraformation research.

By 2038 without the public's knowledge every nation pledged their support to the space research conducted by North America and the Chinese Republic, this led to the two parties becoming the wealthiest and most powerful because all the other nations were depending on them. To mask the global space research that was being conducted, every single nation banded together to create a story which the public would believe before the real reasons and plans behind the research leaked and mass panic ensued. The United Nations purposefully leaked rumours of tension between North American and the Chinese Republic, a staged period of alliance brokering then occurred. To the public it would seem that India, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Belgium had allied themselves with North America as the Allied Forces. Concurrently, Japan, Germany, Russia, Italy, Greece, Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, Turkey and South Korea had seemingly allied themselves with the Chinese Republic as the National's Parliament. All other nations were systematically allied with either the Allied Forces or the National's Parliament randomly as it didn't matter in the large scheme of things. Now that the public believed that almost every nation had allied themselves, the Allied Forces and the National's Parliament publicly staged a United Nations conference which resulted in both parties shaking hands and creating a worldwide peace treaty. Despite the nations already being allied behind closed doors, now the public also believed it. This was needed because beforehand the public would have never believed that worldwide peace had occurred overnight without speculation of a looming worldwide threat. Now the public which was so relieved not to have been facing World War III would not bat an eye when "The Alliance", a title which the public used to refer to the new global peace cooperation, agreed to combine their resources to further worldwide education, health and animal preservation. While space exploration and research were publically part of their agenda, they purposefully avoided bringing overt attention to it. This effectively made the public aware of the space efforts so there wouldn't be worldwide speculation of scandal if it leaked, while also making sure that the public didn't look too closely at it which was easy because everyone would be talking about the health and education initiatives and not the real priority.

Test efforts in terraforming several resource lacking planets and moons close to Earth were successful, and feasible space exploration vehicles had been developed although they couldn't reach sustainable speeds needed to evacuate the entirety of the human race and the acceptable portions of Earth's animals to the star clusters were they would terraform the planets and moons, before the food and water would run out on the journey leading to mass starvation and death. The Alliance came to the realisation that they could not evacuate the entire population and feed them on the journey, and even then the journey would take close to 125 years. The Alliance needed a population drop of 40% and more supplies of food and water to make sure the evacuation was successful. The Alliance enacted martial law. Nobody could protest that food and medicine rations were not enough or that they were being torturously overworked because all nation agreed on everything, it was globally induced poverty.

By 2074 the Earth's population had dropped to roughly one billion and the consumption of any non-officially rations food was punishable by death. The Alliance was preserving the majority of Earth's meats, vegetables and fruits, while giving the general population small portions of substances that consisted of the essential nutrients needed to keep a person alive. The construction of spaceships, referred to as arks, was now a constant practice. The arks could carry six thousand people, twelve thousand head of livestock, and vast quantities of preserved produce as well as soil and seed samples. One hundred and fifty-thousand arks had been constructed with more to be completed. The public now knew of Earth's dangerously unsustainable state and of the plan to evacuate Earth, with the Alliance in total control they no longer felt they needed to hide it from the public and now they forcefully co-opted the population to farm produce and mine resources around the clock.

By 2078 the Earth's atmosphere around population hubs had become extremely polluted, while breathable it would effectively shorten a person's lifespan by half in breathed in excess. The Alliance no longer supplied clean sources of oxygen to the farmers and resource miners, but gathered them in countryside camps were the air was less polluted but still harmful. The campers were forced to farm and mine at faster paces in exchange for their countryside board. The Alliance had completed the necessary preparations for the evacuation, which was now known as the "Exodus", and eagerly awaited their estimated departure date of 2097, in the meantime they ordered the construction of as many arks as could be completed before the date and asked for them to be stocked with whatever the Earth had left to give them.

In 2080 Harry Potter returned. The Master of Death was back.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author responses to reviews of the second chapter of Immortality in the Verse posted on either this site, Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **Emperor Of Pandemonium:**

Pretty good second chapter if still a little unbelievable that Harry didn't notice any of this happening. Update again soon :D

 **Author Response:**

 _I know it is implausible but I couldn't have had Harry sticking his nose in the environmental stuff, because he would have fixed it and I need him to go to outer space which could only happen if the Earth essentially dies. Harry's lack of knowledge will be expanded upon in later chapters._

 **Lerianis:**

A good story but the eco-freak nonsense in it turned me off very quickly. No, we will never 'outuse our resources' since when we start recycling everything which is coming the earth will have enough for a population of nearly 500 billion. It is unlikely that we will get to that level even in the next 400 years.

 **Author Response:**

 _I agree that the environmental stuff is implausible, but even as a fanfiction I tried to stick to the Firefly timeline that states the first ships departed in 2097. Keeping to that date, the boring research and political stuff would have happened roughly in my timeframe._

* * *

 _Chapter 3_

Posters plastered all across the walls of Diagon Alley, they read "Exodus - Humanities Only Chance of Survival is Across the Stars."

"Shit" was all Harry managed to say, Fawkes warbled in agreement.

They were going to leave, humankind was abandoning the Earth. Harry scrambled up and down the once bustling, but now deserted Diagon Alley. Literature was peeling off the walls and windows of the stores as if the posters had been hung long ago and forgotten. The posters were not United Kingdom Magical Government issued, the top-right corner was printed with a logo Harry had never seen, for an organisation he hadn't heard of "The United Magical Coalition".

Harry gathered as much information as he could from the posters, but it didn't add up. The posters detailed Earth's instability due to exhausted resources and pollution. Harry would have known, he would have noticed if the Earth was in danger. The posters recommended the permanent use of the Bubble Head charm when in populated urban areas. If it was so bad that people needed a permanent supply of fresh oxygen, why didn't Harry notice before this and why didn't he need one. Even as he was standing in Diagon Alley which the posters described as a "Code 08 - Oxygen Lacking Area Zone", Harry only felt slightly out of breath. Harry's mind began to drift to paranoia, the least faded posters detailed an evacuation operation headed by a muggle governing organisation that again Harry hadn't heard of. Harry paranoia began to manifest in fear, had the world left him behind. Diagon Alley was deserted, even during Voldemort's regime there was still wizards and witches within the Alley. Had the wizards all left? Left him alone on a dying world. A deranged laughter began to emanate from Harry's lips, a dying planet's only resident was an immortal. In Harry's panic this seemed to be the more hilarious thing he had ever thought, unable to collect himself he was expressing his emotions in the completely wrong way.

Fawkes had had enough of Harry's dip into insanity, from his perch atop of boarded up wizarding shop he dive bombed Harry. Harry began haphazardly firing an assortment of spells irrationally thinking he was being attacked. After firing six full body-bind curses in succession at an old apple crate, he finally began to calm down. Fawkes happy that Harry wasn't going to do something stupid nuzzled against Harry's legs with his neck. Think clearly, Harry realised how foolish he had acted apologised to his phoenix companion. Calmly walking with purpose he exited through the enchanted brick wall into the Leaky Cauldron he saw signs that confirmed there were other wizards and witches still around, but it still wasn't right. Like Diagon Alley, the once bustling pub now only had within it seven or so enchanted mugs that were merrily cleaning and stacking themselves behind the bar. Harry and Fawkes opened to door onto what should have been Charing Cross Road. While vaguely resembling the once staple of London's culture, it was now sparse and bare. There were muggles, but they wore devices that strongly resembled scuba tanks while quickly navigating the rubbish laden street. Steeling his reserve Harry apparated away to find the answer to his question, "What the bloody hell happened in just eighteen years?"

* * *

There were no wizards or witches in the location that used to house the United Kingdom Magical Government, but while there he again saw the posters that Diagon Alley had been repainted with, it seemed the wizarding world hadn't progress to the use of social media during his exile. Harry decided that this place was as good as any to find his answers. The posters detailed that in the face of magical population drop, the wizarding governments from around the world had merged into one global magical government. Harry didn't buy this, the entire magical world being government by a single multicultural body. It just wouldn't work, every magical nation like in the muggle world, had their own agenda and prejudices. It was impossible that they could band together and work peacefully for the good of the world's witches and wizards.

It began to make more sense when Harry accessed the computer of the Welsh Magical Leader, despite the magical world embracing technology it seemed that they hadn't used it all that properly. You would think the member of a magical sovereign state leadership council would password protect his computer, alas not. While the premises was mainly abandoned, the Welsh offices seemed mostly untouched. With a little bit of magic to jump start the backup generators Harry started to make sense of things. Despite not being able to access any form of internet Harry was still able to see the Welsh leader's email that he had saved before the lack of electricity hit the offices and Harry was pleased to find various letters and radio transmissions inside the coincidently locked desk. With shock Harry learned that Earth's environment had been damaged due to population booms and the overuse of natural resources. The emails, letters and notes detailed that the muggle nations had all merged into a peaceful worldwide government alliance, Fawkes nudged Harry as he read aloud almost making fun of Harry scoffing at the idea of a united multicultural government. From what Harry had seen while making his way from the Alley to hear, it seemed that this government had declared martial law and plunged the people into sickness and poverty. What he was reading seemed like science-fiction, recognising this was important as Harry knew his world was like something out of fantasy novel. Under the Alliances rule it seemed that they took funds for the good of everyone and spent them on in-house policies. The further Harry read, the more it became clear that said in-house policies was research and development of space exploration and space travel technology. The Alliance had been planning Earth's evacuation long before its condition was publically known.

Reading the emails and notes it seemed clear to Harry that the Alliance had played the public as fools, but Harry also knew that the Alliance's motives were hidden from the public and if he had been in the publics position, he wouldn't have noticed until it was too late either. Grinding his teeth, Harry seethed in anger learning that the United Kingdom Magical Government hadn't even tried to stop the Alliance withholding food and medicine from the muggles while working them to the bone stockpiling crops and meats for them. It seemed that the wizards only felt the need to pull their heads out of their arses when the Alliance announced Earth's evacuation. It was only when trouble was at their front door the wizards and witches began to act in a way that Harry had strived the government to act during his tenure. They had copied the muggles and united their governments into "The United Magical Coalition" and began research into saving the Earth, for about five minutes. The wizards and witches were divided when the findings were presented to them, half agreed that they left their involvement too late and needed to evacuate. The other fell back into traditionalist values in their panic, they believed that their magic was superior to any muggle science and that they being smarter than the muggles didn't believe the facts and regarded them as childish ideas. They were no longer involved in the coalition's efforts.

The coalition started to persuade the magical public of the truth and researched ways of evacuating Earth's magical species when the time came. This proved difficult as the muggles had abandoned the use of telephones and internet technology, while these things had been integrated into the wizarding society and now used in everyday life, wizards and witches didn't understand them and so had no knowledge of how to manually or magically reboot the networks and were forced to abandon them also. The muggles had disbanded any and all forms of entertainment such as music and film, and dedicated radio as their main communication source. While the coalition had used the tried and true method of owl post as their main communication source, they were forced to switch to using the Wizarding Wireless Network because the found the owl's couldn't withstand travel due to the heavy pollution. The wizarding radio was also utilised by the coalition to inform what was left of the magical population, roughly twenty million as the Alliance had affected the magical population as well as the muggle, and also persuade them that participating the exodus evacuation was the only hope for not just wizardkind, but all of humankind's survival.

It was clear to Harry that it all went to shit when the Alliance broadcasted their date of the exodus' commencement and expected departure. Feeling the pressure to get through to the stubborn wizards, the coalition panicked. They couldn't figure out the ark technology and abandoned the idea of constructing their own. This was when the traditionalists reared their heads, the preached that the coalition didn't care about them anymore and that they needed to be stopped. The traditionalists took advantage of the fact that the coalition had regrettably declared that they could no longer facilitate the evacuation of magical creatures. Ironically the intelligent spectrum of magical creatures hadn't believed that the Earth was going to die and stated that they weren't going to participate in the exodus, but when the option was taken away from them they all of a sudden said that it was their right to leave Earth if the wanted to. The traditionalists banded together an army comprised of themselves and the intelligent spectrum of magical creatures, such as centaurs, acromantula and goblins. They declared war against the coalition. It was brief, but bloody affair. The coalition was forced to kill their opposition, but at a cost on both sides. The intelligent magical creatures were slaughtered into extinction and wizarding population was lower than ever.

Sick of playing nice and trying to persuade the stubborn, the coalition said what they were going to do, the witches and wizards could come along or they could sit with their thumbs up their arses until they burned alive when the ozone layer collapsed. While scientifically inaccurate, the statement was powerful. What the coalition said was basically that they couldn't construct any arks, so regrettably magical creatures couldn't be saved. The world's witches and wizards were going to have to participate in the exodus using the muggle arks. The muggles needed to construct 166667 arks to evacuate what was left of the population, which included witches and wizards. The muggles had almost reached their target and most certainly would exceed it before the exodus. The ones who went along with the exodus would sadly never see their new homes as the journey would be 125 years, but the human and magical race could survive beyond there generation or die within their lifetimes on Earth.

The coalition's blunt outlook turned off as many to the idea of exodus as it did persuade. That was the last bit of information Harry could find in the old offices, it was apparent the old Welsh stubbornness had been stronger than those of Britain, Scotland and Ireland as they had all packed up shop earlier, Harry wasn't condemning them though, actually he was glad because they had left the information that Harry had needed. Processing all that he had learnt, Harry wasn't sure what he should do. He contemplated consulting the Resurrection Stone, but quickly dismissed it. He couldn't go find the coalition as it seemed they had disbanded after their final effort and wouldn't resume communication until closer to the exodus, which would be in 2097, seventeen years from now. Harry looked over the emails, letters and radio transmissions again, he winced when he saw his name. The coalition had contemplated searching for him, hoping that The Chosen One could persuade the unconvinced. Harry felt anger at this, thinking back to when Fudge and Scrimgeour had tried the use him the same way. But the immortal began to feel guilty about his absence, the realised that the situation wasn't like Fudge and Scrimgeour's, he could used The Chosen One to save people, a noble cause. He was selfish, being emotionally distant to save himself pain. Well, this pain was worse than could've felt if he outlived his friends. His friends had all died, fighting for the good of wizarding king alongside the coalition while he was shuffling around with Fawkes feeling sorry for himself. He had been worried that he would have to watch them die, but now all he had was a list of casualties that had died fighting the traditionalists, he had hoped that in his absence they would just go on and be happy, but in his absence he outlived them sooner than if he had stayed.

Fawkes was forced to sing his phoenix song to calm Harry, in his pain Harry had attacked the office. For the past five minutes he had been assaulting a literal brick wall, collapsing in a heap in response to Fawkes' tune with blood dripping from his hands. He came to a realisation that didn't seem important in the light of what he had learned. As his hands slowly healed themselves, he realised why he hadn't noticed everything happening around him. While he attributed his ignorance in part to his depressed state while in exile, he also recognised that while being the Master of Death guaranteed his immortality it didn't ensure his invulnerability, only strengthened his durability. His hands were the perfect example, while the Master of Death be injured, they were so durable and could heal themselves quickly so that they couldn't be mortally wounded. During his time as an Auror he discovered that he could survive a gunshot to the chest and still experience the pain, but was unable to be wounded fatally. Harry guessed that during his exile in various non-populated areas he had experienced the pollution, but due to his abilities his body could heal fast enough that Harry didn't register he was breathing polluted air. That was why in Diagon Alley, an area which required permanent oxygen, Harry only felt short of breath. It was only when his body was experiencing what was highly dangerous to a mortal, that it showed signs of distress. His depression and his abilities had enabled Harry to block out to direness of his surroundings, if Harry and Fawkes hadn't become aware of the death and low numbers of the magical creatures and animals he might not have noticed that the Earth was in trouble for years. But with the knowledge that his friends and their descendants had perished, he pushed the thoughts of animals and his insignificant revelation to the back of his mind.

He sat up with a jolt, it wasn't insignificant. While there wasn't anything he could about the people he had lost and the wizards and witches who had scattered in preparation of integrating themselves into the muggle exodus, he could still help the magical creatures. Fawkes had noticed that Harry was thinking feverishly and waddled in an anticipatory fashion for Harry to spring into action. Harry grabbed Fawkes' tail, perhaps a little too roughly and apparated with a new purpose leading the way.

* * *

Harry was going to save the magical creatures of the world. Big and small. Dangerous and docile. They were coming with him on the exodus. Harry had returned to Hogwarts, and to his sorrow it had been abandoned. Harry guessed that when what was left of the wizarding world scattered they abandoned populated wizarding areas and placed themselves in the best position to integrate themselves in preparation for the exodus. Harry felt no trepidation breaking into the tomb of Albus Dumbledore, all those years ago he had wondered if would have done it, now he didn't stop to wonder, Harry had a job to do. The century old immortal had a mission, he was going to save the creatures that could save themselves. Harry's Phoenix wand and the Elder Wand worked in conjunction to help Harry achieve his goal. Harry put all of his magic into it, he enchanted his mokeskin pouch that Hagrid had given him on his seventeenth birthday to create an environment that could sustain life and enable life to thrive within it. Harry planned to store all the magical creatures he could find in his mokeskin pouch and take them with him on the journey. The mokeskin pouch had the potential to expand itself when needed, Harry could keep all the magical creatures and they would just live like they would in the real world.

It was when Harry and Fawkes were essentially tricking the Hogwarts unicorns and thestrals into evacuating themselves into his pouch that he saw a wizard. Sorta. The Hogwarts ghosts had glided down from the castle to see what the commotion in the forest was about. The ghosts had been abandoned when Hogwarts had, without the knowledge that young witches and wizards wouldn't be attending anymore that had stayed waiting to guide the new members of Hogwarts through their magical education.

"My word Harry, what on earth are you doing to those poor creatures?" exclaimed a voice behind Harry.

A startled Harry dropped the mokeskin pouch, its opening shrinking back to its normal size. "Nick" Harry yelped. "What – how – shouldn't you have," Harry stammered.

"I thought they said he was dead." Harry heard one ghost say to the Fat Friar. "No, no, they said he left." he heard another ghost whisper back.

"I'm not dead, and I am trying to save them," said Harry still quiet flustered pointing to the creatures.

"Why would you need to save them Harry, they are perfectly happy, even if not to the extent when Hagrid took care of them?" asked Nick.

"How much do you know Nick?" questioned Harry.

"I'd like to think I have compiled quite a bit knowledge in my life, and afterlife, thank you very much Harry" responded Nick in an affronted tone.

"No, not that. How much do you know about why there is no one is the castle anymore?" asked Harry a tad exasperated.

"Well, everybody went home at the end of the year, as usual," said ghost who's name escaped Harry.

"And Gryffindor won the house cup might I just add" interrupted Nick boastfully.

"Yes, thank you Nicholas" the now annoyed ghost continued, "Well, the just never came back, and that was … well, I guess we don't really remember how long ago that was." This statement caused the ghosts to started shuffling, while still hovering in an uncomfortable sort of way.

"Yes, well that is in the past now, isn't it. Harry is back now, aren't you Harry, you're back to signal the coming of a new flock of smiling youngsters. Hopefully some good Gryffindors among them," Nick said nodding confidently, while the others looked confused and displaced. Nick saw Harry's pained expression and deflated knowing that something was wrong.

Harry had been forced to explain the situation and tell the ghosts that there weren't going to be any new students. The conclusion of Harry's explanation was voiced with such things as, "Impossible" and "Utter nonsense" and even "No, no it's a trick. That isn't even the real Harry Potter. Harry Potter should be an old man by now," all the ghosts bar Nick looked at Harry expectantly as if he was going say he was joking or playing an elaborate trick.

"This is the truth Harry?" asked Nick. Harry nodded sadly. "No more children, no more classes, no more Hogwarts?" again Harry nodded sadly at Nick question.

"At least not on Earth, and even then it won't be the same. It won't be Hogwarts" croaked Harry.

"But, but … what do we do, we are charged to provide guidance and wisdom to all at Hogwarts whom need it," spoke a ghost whom Harry thought might the ghost was haunted the Muggle Studies corridor.

"We, go on. We cheated death with the promise that we would guide the children of Hogwarts. Our task is complete, there is no one left to teach. We have to face what comes next." replied Nick sorrowfully to the collection of ghost whom look scared while also proud. One by one they faded away, finally going on. Harry turned away pretending to be examining the mokeskin pouch unable to watch the ghost do what he never could.

When Harry thought enough time had passed and that all of the ghosts would have faded he turned around, "Nick" Harry exclaimed. "You were supposed to - you said that you had to - what, what are still doing here Nick?" said Harry semi-coherently.

"Why Harry, I am providing wisdom and guidance to my charge," said Nick as if this was obvious.

"But Nick, I am not a student. I don't need wisdom. You should have gone on with the others, it is probably not that bad on the other side, you never know," said Harry.

"Harry" sighed Nick, "There might not be a Hogwarts for too long, but you are a Gyriffindor, and you are braving the odds to what is right. It is my charge to help you Harry" Nick calmly stated. "And if a Gyriffindor wants to save the magical creatures of the world, I will help that Gyriffindor," stated Nick in a tone that clearly said that it wasn't up for discussion.

Harry was touched, he really was. "Okay, then you go around that way and … ah … spook the unicorns towards me and Fawkes will herd them into the pouch, okay." said Harry. Nick nodded, glad to be fulfilling his duty and helping out, he would never had said this back when Harry was at school, his favourite Gyriffindor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author responses to reviews of the third chapter of Immortality in the Verse posted on either this site, Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **Jhotenko:**

I like how you're showing Harry's struggles with immortality. I suppose an immortal wouldn't realize they were in certain deadly environments.

Two small issues: One: It should be mokeskin not moleskin. A moke is a magical creature.

Two: When you write dialogue, try to keep one speaker per paragraph, otherwise it can get confusing.

Nice take on Harry's 'saving people thing.' Trying to save the magical creatures sounds like something he'd do.

I look forward to your next post.

 **Author Response:**

 _Jhotenko, again thank you for the review. I went back and changed all references to moleskin to mokeskin, my mistake. I appreciate the tip about writing dialogue, when I incorporated it into my story it made the story much easier to read and look a lot cleaner._

 **Ace Trainer Jessie:**

wow ! I can't wait to read more. I also like how Nick stayed around with Harry. umm if there house elves left. Could they help take care of the other creatures ?

 **Author Response:**

 _Ace Trainer Jessie, thank you for the review. I also thought that Nick would be the sort of person, or ghost, that would help Harry out even after his Hogwarts years. I put Nick into the story because I couldn't figure out a way for Fawkes and Harry to "communicate" without it being silly or Harry seeming crazy, so I added Nick even though I hadn't originally planned to as Harry's sounding board and companion. This enabled Harry and Fawkes to communicate without speaking and provided another link to the books once Harry delves deeper into the Firefly universe._

 _Also, the house elves along with the other verbally intelligent magical creatures were manipulated by the traditionalists into waging war against to coalition. So by the time Harry meet back up with Nick, the house elves would have already been slaughtered along with the centaurs, goblins and other creatures._

* * *

 _Chapter 4_

Harry had done it. Through the combined efforts of the Master of Death and his Deathly Hallows he had completed his mission. Inside his mokeskin pouch resided all of the magical creatures Fawkes, Nick and himself had been able to find. The pouch catered to all of magical creatures within its borders, it was essentially a large country landscape within a pocket dimension. The mokeskin dimension that Harry had created included every terrain he and his companions could think of, there were mountains, lakes, deserts, snow, forests and more. The mokeskin dimension would enabled its inhabitants to survive beyond the Earth and because its environments were constructed to appear Earth-like, the magical creatures would hardly notice that they weren't actually on Earth, but that they lived inside something that was once given by a half-giant as a birthday present to a boy whom was becoming a man on his seventeenth birthday.

It had taken Harry a while to accept the workings of the animal kingdom and the natural behaviours of the magical creatures within the mokeskin dimension. Harry's "saving people thing" had extended to the inhabitants of the mokeskin dimension, for a while he couldn't stomach that the magical creatures had created a food chain and that it meant that some of the creatures that he had worked so hard to save were being killed. It was only when Nick and Fawkes had once again reprimanded him for his interference within the mokeskin dimension that Harry accepted what his companions were telling him. With a tone akin to a parent explaining to their child that the tooth fairy wasn't real they had told Harry that him being the one who had saved the creatures, meant that he had to let them live.

"Harry, harry, harry," sighed Nick, "it is natural for those creatures to act as they are. You must know that even in the muggle world this happens among their animals. Harry you are treating them like your pets, you told me that you wanted to save the magical creatures of the world, and we have done a mighty job of it. But Harry you have to realise, you can't play god with them. You created a sanctuary and you have to let them live out their lives within it just as they would have on Earth."

"But they're dying Nick," said Harry exasperatedly.

"For goodness sake Harry, they are not dying. They are fulfilling the circle of life; they are living by their instincts. They kill to feed themselves and when they die their children will do the same, it has been happening since the dawn of time and so help me Harry you have to let it happen now. Your sanctuary has to be that, a sanctuary. A home for the magical creatures and not a cage. Harry you have saved them and now you have to leave them be." Nick said giving Harry a ghostly stare which seemed to implore Harry to accept this.

Harry soon realised that his companions were right, and as such he appointed Fawkes and Nick as the mokeskin dimension's caretakers. Harry had then expanded the pouch further, aside from the magical creatures, the mokeskin dimension now housed a storage facility underneath a mountain range that was home to the mokeskin dimension's dragon inhabitants. While travelling the world and collecting as many of the magical creatures that Nick, Fawkes and himself had been able to locate, they also preserved certain aspects of wizarding and muggle culture that had been abandoned. Though most of the wizarding world's culture had been abandoned in favour of death or muggle integration in preparation of the exodus. The muggle culture had been all but outlawed. The Alliance had disbanded almost all forms of entertainment in favour of their efforts to evacuate Earth. Harry and his companions had stored within "The Library" as Nick had dubbed it, a vast collection of muggle literature, music and film, as well as such wizarding artefacts as spellbooks, brooms, butterbear, fire whiskey, wands and an assortment of magical devices that Harry had deemed useful or important.

Killing time before the exodus, Harry had been working his way through his duplicate collection of the Hogwarts library. Unlike other abandoned books that Harry had just taken, he had only duplicated the literature of Hogwarts in the hope that someone might collect it before the exodus. For the first century of his existence, he hadn't read much. He certainly knew a lot, but that was mostly from experience, with what would soon become the greatest collection of muggle and magical knowledge at his disposal; Harry hoped to be able to learn all things he had once wanted to and a 125 year journey seemed like a great time to do so.

Relief had flooded through Harry a few months before the exodus, the coalition had sent a message to what was left of the wizarding world. The coalition had piggybacked the Alliance broadcasts to deliver their message, at the conclusion of the Alliance broadcasts a spell was spoken through the radio waves. The spell put the muggles in a sort of trance for the duration of the "special" broadcast, this enabled the coalition to speak freely to the scattered witches and wizards of the world without being overheard. The coalition stated that the hoped that the remaining witches and wizards of the world were prepared for the exodus and that they wished for them not to isolate themselves from the muggles, but try to interact peacefully with them as both themselves and their children would be spending over a century in the presence of muggles. The coalition had also said that although there wasn't an overt presence of a magical government or society, they were still there. This meant that magical secrecy was still expected to be upheld for the duration of the exodus. The coalition finished their first broadcast in years with the promise that the magical world would survive on the new worlds and to stay strong.

The broadcasts were infrequent during the exodus and never brought with them good news. A couple months after Harry had successfully boarded an ark with Nick and Fawkes within the moleskin dimension along with the library and the magical creatures, and coned his way into receiving a private bunk, when the passengers all suddenly went into the familiar trance. The coalition said that there had been incidents in which witches and wizards had broken the secrecy act and tried to enlarge their meal rations. This had resulted said witches and wizards being caught, charged by the Alliance as thieves and executed. The coalition ended their broadcast in the same way, stating that secrecy was key to the wizarding world's survival and wishing the witches and wizards luck.

There were some people aboard Harry's ark that he knew were magical. While he feigned a trance like state during the coalition's broadcasts, because he didn't want to be recognised as Harry Potter, other witches and wizards didn't, this enabled Harry to identify such individuals and keep tabs on them. The other passengers aboard the arks spent most of their time playing cards and procreating like bunnies, Harry spent his time developing his already formidable skills. In the first few years of the exodus, Harry had learnt to art of becoming an animagus. Harry could now successfully turn himself into a large black dog, which Harry had chosen in honour of his godfather, he now set his sights further. The books that Harry found throughout the world had detailed many things not taught at Hogwarts. Harry was particularly interested in the possibility of multiple animagus transformations. Although his bunk was adequately sized for a large dog transformation, Harry had retreated into the mokeskin dimension for the practicing of his next transformations. It was a few short years before Harry had added more transformations to his animagus skillset, Harry now could transform into the large black dog, a Hungarian Horntail that looked just like Flint and stag in honour of his father. Seeing as Harry had animagus transformations that would enable infiltration as a loveable pet, air travel and land travel, Harry wanted to be able to transform into an aquatic creature to round out his transformations. While none of these would be useful to Harry aboard the ark, Harry was looking to stretching his legs, paws, wings and hooves on the new worlds which was now about forty years away.

It was around the forty years remaining mark that wizard communications delivered heartbreaking news, wizarding optimism was low. Most of the magical people were reaching the ends of their lives, which due to constant exposure to pollution and famine hadn't been that long to begin with. Although some witches and wizards had procreated among themselves and muggles, the future of the wizarding race was in danger. The birth of magical children hadn't been the shining light that the wizarding race had hoped for. Magical children being magical children couldn't control their magic, while their parents tried to teach them to control their magic it was difficult, unlike Harry most of the passengers were sharing living quarters and couldn't perform magic behind closed doors. The coalition had broadcasted that the unfortunate uncontrollable nature of some magical children had caused disastrous engine failure aboard multiple arks. The tantrums and childish nature of untrained magical children had affected the electronic workings of the propulsion and live support utilities of the arks. The inhabitants of many arks had suffered asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen and would never reach their new homes.

Dishearteningly, the coalition now regularly reported that more and more arks had suffered massive misfortune due to a combination of magical interference and unavoidable mechanical issues. The number of "dead" arks were rising every week. Harry became angrier every time more deaths were reported either through muggle communication or wizard communication, Harry was mad that he couldn't do anything about the other arks and that the witches and wizards, as well as the muggles, that had all been offered prosperity across the stars had been rewarded for their optimism and loyalty with death. Harry became more and more withdrawn, only leaving his bunk for food when Fawkes wouldn't stop pecking him or when Nick constantly glided through Harry knowing it would prompt Harry to move unless he wanted to feel like he was being dunked in cold water every five seconds. Unlike Harry whom spent his time consumed in books, learning new muggle skills and strengthening his magical abilities, the other passengers kept on living, most hoping that their children would reach the new worlds and constantly praying that the ark didn't fail like so many others. Harry observed that the passengers seemed to double their efforts of procreation in response to the death tolls, Harry himself was forced to decline many women whom blatantly asked if he wanted to be the father of their children. While the passengers alternated between procreating and praying, Harry only hoped that their prayers were being heard by someone or something. Although he couldn't die, Harry didn't really want to experience what would happen to himself if their ark failed as so many others had.

Harry's ark, now home to a fresh batch of youngsters whom would never know Earth and would only think of the new worlds as home, was only two months from reaching its destination. None of the original passengers were alive on the ship, but their constant procreation had paid off as the ark was full of spaceborns aged 2-40. Harry hadn't needed to change his face during the exodus at all, the six thousand population of the ark at the start of the exodus had provided enough people that Harry's non-ageing face and body went unnoticed. Nowadays the arks inhabitants presumed that he was just another twenty-something spaceborn and never looked twice at him. While education had been provided to the spaceborns, they didn't uphold the standards of language that their parents did. Most spaceborns spoke in English, but they incorporated Chinese into their speech as slang. This wasn't inconceivable as the Alliance had been created through the merger of the United States and China. Spaceborns had also relaxed their standards of living from what had been usual back on Earth, the spaceborns didn't question the consumption of nutrition packs, many had never tasted the fruits, meats and vegetables of Earth that were preserved throughout the exodus. While they had all seen the cattle, livestock and other animals housed underneath the main cargo bay of the ark, they didn't dare kill or harm one as it was punishable by getting "spaced", being forcefully expelled from the ark. The spaceborns understood why they were in exodus and looked forward to seeing land for the first time, but they didn't share the feelings of loss when thinking or discussing Earth, they couldn't miss something they never had, as such they referred to their parents' home as Earth-That-Was and the saying spread throughout the arks and became common fixture in the language as well as calling their surroundings "The Verse" instead the more accurate term, universe.

The ark that Harry resided on had been a part of the sixth wave of departure from Earth. All ark departures had been staggered throughout forty waves. As such many people had already arrived on the newly terraformed planet called Londinium before them and the Alliance had quickly engaged in communications with the remaining arks to gauge the amount of surviving arks and to guide the remaining arks safely to Londinium. A little more than a month before Harry's ark was expected to land on the new planet both the Alliance and the coalition broadcasted a radio transmission that detailed the casualties of the exodus. It seemed that many more arks had "died" in the exodus than they had known of, as such millions of people would never step foot on the solid ground of Londinium. The coalition as usual piggybacked the Alliance's transmission and broadcasted the causalities of the wizarding world. The arks that had arrived only averaged a magical population of eighty per ark and the coalition had predicted that with the dead arks that the magical population that would arrived would only be 28% of it had been at the start of the exodus. The coalition sadly stated that due to the extreme loses of the wizarding world and the death of many whom would have been depended upon to assist in the revitalisation of the wizarding world that the coalition was disbanding and that this would be there final broadcast. They said that without numbers to support the construction of a wizarding society in the verse, they weren't willing to risk exposure to complete an effort that would only be appreciated by an abysmal population of untrained and uneducated witches and wizards whom wouldn't even miss the culture of wizarding Earth. The coalition told any remaining witches and wizards in exodus to enter society of the new worlds afresh and again reiterated that while there was no longer any magical government, secrecy was still to be upheld and that while people were free to teach their children magic this was not encouraged and there would be no formal magical education endorsed by the coalition. Basically the remaining magical part of the human race was left to their own devices.

Not long after the coalition's final broadcast did a rash of witch and wizard suicides occur aboard Harry's ark. The muggles didn't understand why people would choose to end their own lives when they were so close to reaching their new home, but Harry knew they had chosen to end it because they couldn't see a new home without the promise of discovering the secrets of their heritage and they preferred to no longer will themselves to survive without that promise.

Everything happened quickly once the exodus had concluded, everyone scattered onto different moons and planets, eager to begin their new lives on their new homes. It seemed that if the Alliance hadn't allowed the population to leave Londinium before they were prepared for them to populate the newly terraformed planets and moons they wouldn't have lost control over the people. The Alliance literally had everyone in the palm of their hands, the entire remainder of the population had been housed within their arks, the Alliance had control over everyone. But in the panic and excitement from finally arriving on Londinium, the Alliance had collectively been rendered flustered. They had enabled the people to unofficially purchase personal transport ships and travel to the surrounding regions. With the people now spread across many terraformed planets of the verse their practices and habits devolved into less civilised lifestyles. While Londinium and the planets and moons closely surrounding it had been populated by the people in control of Earth-That-Was' produce and was controlled heavily by the Alliance, the planets and moons further away from the central planets were governed by the strong and cruel and carried a lifestyle akin to that of an old Western. It was common practice to carry weapons and it was even more common to use them against one another. Any remaining witches and wizards kept to themselves on the core and rim planets, while Harry knew that many experimented with the use of magic he didn't mind, he used magic all the time and he had done against coalition law during the exodus. Harry and the remaining witches and wizards it seemed didn't see the point in secrecy anymore as their numbers where so few and stretched over so many planets and moons that there was little chance that any magic user would knowingly interact with another for than five minutes. Harry knew that the witches and wizards were content with their new lives, the struggles of the exodus only left the strong witches and wizards remaining, witches and wizards who had accepted their roles in the new society and despite the hardships of their kind were going to give it their best chance.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author responses to reviews of the fourth chapter of Immortality in the Verse posted on either this site, Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **GoodKarma:**

Good morning. I've been wondering something for a little while. Ever since you mentioned the fact that the humans in this story would be using "Terra Forming" in their escape plan. Why can't they use elements of that process here (where conditions used to be good), instead of entirely changing another planet/moon?

 **Author Response:**

 _They didn't do that in the story because it wouldn't fit into the Firefly timeline. But if you want so sort of logical reason, perhaps the Earth was too far gone and the use of terraforming technology would damage what was left of the Earth's ozone and mantle. They also didn't terraform Mars and the Moon because they weren't resource rich planets and moons. The human race had to travel 125 years because those planets and moons were the closest terraforming compatible and resource rich planets and moons._

 **Joe Lawyer:**

I can't recall all the details from chapter 1, but Harry did create a huge artificial world in that pouch. He could have saved tens of thousands in that thing and even preserved their culture. Or am I missing something? His unhappiness with the way the wizarding government conducted things shouldn't have translated to the people in general.

Knowledge of Harry's continued existence and the fact he saved so much knowledge and many magical creatures would have galvanized the remaining wizards and witches to choose to live. I'm a bit at a loss as to why he never even seems to consider this.

I get you're trying to bring about the Firefly portion of the story, but Harry is coming off like quite a monster.

 **Author Response:**

 _Joe Lawyer, I appreciate the review, it makes me look at the characters in the story as if I am reading it, not writing it._

 _To answer your queries it was only after Harry returned from exile that he became aware of the state of the world. After the fact he even thought that he would have used his position in the wizarding world to rally support for the exodus, but at that point the magical government had disbanded and wouldn't convene closer to the date of departure. Furthermore, the witches and wizards whom were remaining after Harry's return had all scattered to put themselves in the best position for exodus participation. Harry couldn't find them._

 _At the end of the last chapter it states that whatever wizards and witches remained were the strong and most willing to accept that there wasn't going to be a major wizarding reestablishment. What would be the point of Harry revealing himself to the small remainder of magical people whom had accepted that the wizarding culture was gone? The Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, Harry Potter, while being a legend that survived Earth, I just think he would be a painful reminder of the old-world to the magical people who had now accepted their roles in life._

 _That being said it doesn't completely rule out the possibility of wizard reestablishment, after all since Harry doesn't charm his appearance anymore it is possible that a witch and wizard will recognise his scar._

 _Also, Harry would have arrived in Londinium in 2224, by that point Harry would be 244 years old. A person almost two and a half centuries old would probably be unable to relate to people in general, that doesn't mean he hates them. Perhaps that is why Harry connects with animals so much, because they are simple, and Harry did save thousands of magical creatures within the pouch, he and his companions found every creature magical or not and saved them. Harry didn't stop the rash of magical suicides upon his ark because how could've he. The arks are obviously large and Harry can't be everywhere at once and while Harry knew of some magicals aboard the arks, he hadn't identified all of them and as such couldn't keep tabs on all of them. Harry's humanity is shown again when he is saddened by their suicides, mainly because he couldn't even die if he wanted to, but his emotions for people are still there, even if they aren't as strong as they once were._

 _There is quote from a film that goes something like "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain". Perhaps that applies to Harry, after all he cannot die._

 **Guest:**

:Umm, yeah I must be missing something or you're a little lost in geography. Britain, technically Great Britain, at one point would have included all the countries you mentioned. The only one not included today in the UK is Ireland. So I really have no idea what you are saying when the Ministry no longer represents Britain but instead the UK and then you list all the countries that would have been part of the Kingdom of Great Britain before the Irish revolution.

 **Author Response:**

 _Great Britain is an island that encompasses the territories of England, Scotland and Wales._

 _The United Kingdom is a sovereign state made up of Great Britain (see above) and Northern Ireland. The official title is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"._

 _I may be mistaken but I believe my story doesn't contradict any of these facts. Therefore, whenever I refer to the United Kingdom, it effectively refers to England, (Northern) Ireland, Scotland and Wales._

 **Jeff091:**

(Various sentence corrections.)

 **Author Response:**

 _The corrections were noted and incorporated into the story._

* * *

 _Chapter 5_

Hera, Osiris, Ares, Triumph, Londinium, Muir, Lilac, Persephone, Beaumonde, Ariel, Boros, Harvest, Constance, Deadwood, Highgate, Jiangyin, Sihnon, New Melbourne, Aberdeen and all the worlds in between, Harry had probably been there. Since the arrival of Harry's ark 284 years ago, Harry had travelled the verse to his heart's content. On Earth, Harry prided himself on the fact that he had probably seen more of the Earth than anyone else. Perhaps it was because Harry didn't really know what to do with himself or possibly it was that he felt that he should be the one to see more of the verse than anymore else. Nevertheless, not long after the exodus had Harry "borrowed" himself a personal cargo-transport ship and set out to explore all the worlds available to him.

Harry guessed that he been to almost if not all of the terraformed planets and moons, and nowadays there were about 200 of them. The Alliance had originally set out to terraform as many worlds as possible, but they found that their numbers weren't large enough to establish themselves as the prominent figures on every moon and planet they terraformed. When it became apparent they couldn't maintain a permanent presence on the border and rim worlds, they retreated back to their strongholds on the central planets and abandoned terraformation efforts to instead focus their energies into strengthening their control over the central planets and a majority of the border planets. With the central and border planets in their arsenal the Alliance could finally regain complete control over all terraformed worlds and their citizens akin to the hope that they originally had before they incompetently let their influence slip away when the let the people uncontrollably spread across the verse.

Up until a few years ago, the Alliance had only been a vague annoyance to the regular people of the verse. Things changed when they started exerting harsh measures to further their control. The Alliance's agenda began to affect people who didn't want to be a part of it, regular people soon showed their rebellious attitude towards the alliance, not by declaring all-out war, but by being the biggest thorn in the alliances side that they could be. Farmers refused to sell their produce to the Alliance, rim and border business didn't allow any uniforms inside their establishments and pilots began to use their skills to disrupt the Alliance's activities up in the black.

Of course the rebellious actions of the people had resulted in harsher Alliance actions, things just kept escalating until simple rebellious attitudes birthed the first war of the verse. Harry found it hard to form an opinion of which side he supported in the Unification War. On the one hand the Alliance only wanted control for controls sake, they didn't wish to better the lives of the people in the verse, they just couldn't stand for someone other than themselves having power. The outer world rebels, now called the Independence or more commonly Browncoats, also seemed doomed to fail in Harry's eyes. Although a majority of the rim and border planets had united against the Alliance, they didn't have the same numbers or firepower that the Alliance had cultivated. Harry wished that he could say that he stayed out of the war, but his saving people thing was still his strongest quality.

Harry didn't side with either the Alliance or the Browncoats, but he still helped the people he thought needed it. Harry often supplied medicine and food to people living in squalor and poverty, Harry tried his best to treat the people the same regardless of their place in the verse. Harry also utilised his skills as a pilot, which he had mastered during his centuries of practice, Harry provided transport to residents of worlds which were subject of the war ragging around them. It was on one of his jobs transporting a family from a planet which was soon about to house what would almost certainly be a bloody battle that Harry found something beautiful. The family that he had been transporting he requested that he take them to a moon called Tanna, has was resistant because this was one of the rare worlds that Harry had explored but relented due to his curiosity for the same reason. It seemed that Tanna was one of rare worlds that hadn't been ravaged by either the Browncoats or the Alliance. Tanna was a farming moon that held a relatively small population for its size. The moon only had one major population hub which housed the farmers and their families, while they chopped down the forests when the needed additional space for crops or livestock, most of the moon was wild forest. It was here that Harry faltered in his resolve.

Ever since Ron and Hermione had died Harry had closed off his emotions, despite his saving people thing often slipping through, Harry hadn't actually invested his emotions into the wellbeing of other people for a long time. But on Tanna Harry found himself caring again, these people treated Harry like family and Harry found it hard not to reciprocate. Even though emotions were reawakening in Harry, he was still wary of them, he refused to set up a permanent residence in Tanna, despite how much he may have wanted to. Still, Harry always returned from his jobs with food, medicine and toys for the children. Harry connected with these people and he soon began to forget about the war, Harry became comfortable with them and he found himself wanting to help them, even if just with little things. Harry had once constructed a water slide for the children of the Tanna farming village that went from the top of their waterfall into the creek below it. Against Harry instincts Tanna became Harry's point of return, while he couldn't admit it might be home, it was the place he always came back to from his travels.

Despite being happy himself, Harry still had other things he had to do. Through the centuries the mokeskin dimension had thrived and Harry started to wonder about the possibility of reintegration of the magical creatures. With Tanna being almost completely undeveloped Harry had plenty of room to experiment with reintegration, while Harry couldn't release say the dragons from the pouch, he could with some other creatures. Harry introduced a small number of unicorns into the forests of Tanna, he had of course disillusioned their horns as to allow them to be seen as just white horses if they were found by the residents of Tanna's farming village. Harry's precaution surrounding the unicorn's visible attributes turned out to be not unfounded as the unicorns, whom for generations had never been in the presence of humans and had become increasingly curious about them. The personality aspects of unicorns in that they were skittish around men were no longer present in these unicorns, obviously Harry's sanctuary had eliminated their natural instincts and enabled them to become comfortable with creatures of other than their species. After only three months, the unicorn's reintegration had taken an unexpected turn.

Returning to Tanna from one of his more dangerous transport jobs, Harry discovered that the unicorns had travelled from their part of the forest where Harry had placed them to the farming township of Tanna. While the farmers of Tanna only thought of the unicorns as white horses whom had migrated from a part of the undeveloped areas of Tanna, but Harry was worried that despite his knowledge that the people of Tanna were good people, that the reason for Earth's unicorns fear of humans would eventually reoccur with the new unicorns and it would end badly. Unfortunately, Harry couldn't just remove the unicorns from the township as the unicorns had become almost puppy-like in their dependence on and need for emotional validation from humans. Harry feared that if he removed the unicorns they would become emotional distressed and that it would endanger their reintegration. Therefore, Harry let the unicorns become a part of the Tanna community. The unicorns played with the children, freely submitted themselves for use in farmer duties and guarded the livestock from foxes at night all in exchange for some of the farmer's vegetable crops. Instead of reintegrating the unicorns into the Tanna habitat, the unicorns had integrated themselves into the lives of the people of Tanna.

Still nervous in regards to the wellbeing of his charges Harry tried his best to accept the situation. It was too late when Harry realised that instincts weren't meant to be ignored. Six months after they were first released from the pouch, Harry saw it. Smoke and death. Strewn across the farmer villages were bodies, most dead, some injured. Harry's heart broke upon seeing the slain forms of the six female unicorns, as well as the four males. Harry had been worried when the unicorns hadn't come when he whistled as they almost always did, but he hadn't in his worst nightmare, no sadly the images of the things he loved dead were a common aspect of his nightmares, but now Harry was living it. Running frantically down through the village towards the unicorns in the hope that if just got them soon enough he could somehow reverse their fates, this was done to no avail. Harry didn't cry, he ran out of tears centuries ago, but for anyone else the scene would have inspired rivers of them. The people of Tanna whom regarded Harry as one of them were glad to see Harry because they knew of his knowledge of medicine, one among many skills Harry had whiled away the centuries learning, as Harry healed the people whom hadn't perished he felt the numbness crept throughout his body once more. It felt as if the numbness had never left, but only retired for a moment as if to teach Harry a lesson about letting himself feel. Upon healing the survivors they told Harry what had occurred; the Alliance had come during the night and plundered their crops, they said that they didn't need the food but were insuring the Browncoats were deprived of it. When the farmers had expressed their anger that the food was been taken for no good reasons, the Alliance didn't give them any quarter. It seemed that nowadays just one wrong word to the wrong person could result in your death. But this was a farming planet, while being peaceful these farmers were like those that had been on Earth, if you get in their way - you better know that everyone and their mum is strapped. The gunfire from both the farmers and the Alliance had startled the cattle and caused the unicorns to investigate the cause as they were guarding the livestock. The unicorns who had effectively been adopted by the town had tried to defend the people, while magical these creatures couldn't do anything against a barrage of bullets.

While Harry hadn't admitted to the people of Tanna that the presence of the unicorns was his doing, most of them had guessed. A few of the relatively unharmed survivors helped Harry drag the unicorn's corpses into a now burned out field, the survivors felt that many of them owed their lives or their loyalty to the "horses" as they had ran into the firefight and protected their friends, family, wives and children against the Alliance soldiers. The farmer's in turn felt that they owed Harry the same as they felt he was somewhat responsible for the unicorn's presence on Tanna. Harry was glad they didn't try to converse with him because he was pretty sure his voice had disappeared, he wanted to reassure the people that he had foolishly let himself care about that everything was fine, it wasn't. The creatures he had protected for centuries and many generations had been killed due to his allowance to let himself fell optimistic that just a little bit of the wizarding world could survive in the verse. He had stupidly thought that he could be the one to bring them back, but he just bought them to their deaths.

Being bombarded with rage, guilt, sadness or any number of emotions Harry retreated into his ship and in the privacy that it afforded him, ventured into the mokeskin dimension's library and quickly gathered bottles of firewhiskey and other muggle alcoholic drinks into a bag. With his liquid supplements in tow, Harry retreated back into his ship with his eyes closed, he didn't want to inadvertently spot any of the unicorns that resided on the mokeskin dimension's surface. Harry quashed any feelings of sadness or guilt and for eight days he submerged himself in anger and rage. For eight days he drank, shouted and swore, he threw countless bottles of alcohol at the walls of the cargo bay, he pounded the doors mercilessly, he hands healing themselves and soon as cuts formed. Harry did regret destroying the firewhiskey bottles and some of the ordinary alcohol, despite collecting thousands of crates of the stuff in the library, it wasn't as if he could get any more when he ran out and as he would live forever he knew one day he would run out. Getting caught up in silly thoughts about the inventory of his library allowed Harry to catch his breath and his brain to become unclouded, he realised that the unicorn corpses were still lying in the field. After checking something in one of the countless books of the library, Harry left the ships confines and ran to the field. The survivors looked slightly fearful of Harry, while they had always known him as standoffish, they had obviously been shaken by Harry's shouting and swearing. Seeing that the unicorn's corpses were untouched he was relieved. Harry began to enact the traditional burial for unicorns which he had just checked up on in one of his Earth books. Harry had read that it was the most respectful way to treat the fallen creatures and he felt that it was only right to give them that as they had sacrificed themselves honourably, and Harry was going to treat them with the same amount of honour. At the height of the moon, Harry had covered them with the leaves of Tanna's trees and burned their corpses. In the morning, after the flames had burned themselves out, Harry collected the ashes and deposited them in a dozen wizard decorative urns that he had stored in the library. Harry told the survivors to sew a handful of the ashes into the soil before the planting of new crops every seasons. While slightly confused, the Tanna survivors trusted and respected Harry, as such they agreed to do as he wished. Harry knew that while the drinking of unicorn blood cursed the drinker, the scattering of the ashes would ensure Tanna's protection and prosperity as the unicorns had willingly sacrificed themselves for the lives of Tanna's men, women and children.

Harry was clever, but also extremely empathetic. His lifespan hadn't dull that. Despite his intelligence and sense of logical, Harry still blamed himself for the deaths of his charges, but he also blamed the Alliance. Harry left Tanna with vengeance in his sights.

* * *

Immortality, it bloody sucks. It sounds good on paper, live forever, sure. Be resistant to injury, why not. If presented with the option, anyone would probably want to be immortal. Those people would be wrong. Immortality bloody sucks.

As Harry lay on a wooden floor he was experiencing one of the more inconvenient aspects of his immortality. If Harry were to receive a slash across his back from a blade, his immortality would insure the prompt healing of his body. His immortality didn't heal a bloody concussion. Harry had infiltrated a prisoner of war camp on Muir, this wasn't an ordinary prisoner of war camp. The residents of Muir had taken a strange position in the war, they claimed that their planet was neutral, but they were pretty quick to the trigger if any word of military operation reach their ears. Any soldier, Alliance or Browncoat, was at risk of imprisonment if they stepped foot on Muir. The planet's stance on neutrality was basically, you leave us out of it and we won't come after you - but if you come to our doorstep, you're done. Harry had been attempting a break out for the inmates of the camp when he was rendered unconscious. He had been a tad too flirty with one of the female guards when he had been caught, of course the guard had to have a big, bad and ugly jealous husband. Harry had only been trying to get close to her so he could nick her keys, a summoning charm would have made too much noise. Nevertheless, when her husband rounded the corner of the compound and decided the Harry was being a bit to handsy with his wife, Harry got whacked on the back of his skull with the husband's overly large rifle, perhaps he was compensating. Once unconscious the husband had found Harry's identification, which obviously wasn't well forged, and thrown Harry into the bunks with the people he had been here to break out.

Groaning Harry slowly rolled onto his other side, slightly awake now Harry wondered where he was. It wasn't uncommon for Harry to find some companionship of the opposite sex, and not that kind of companionship, and wake up in a place unfamiliar to him. This wasn't one of those times, remembering why he had been here in the first place, Harry strained his ears to perhaps hear something that would help him find out his location. Harry knew that opening his eyes would lose him the element of surprise if someone saw him and he needed to attack. Harry heard varying accents, which meant that there were people from different places in the verse. Sighing internally he realised that he was in one of the prisoner bunks, the guards where all of Muir heritage and had carried an accent different from anywhere else in verse. Knowing that he could take on almost anyone due to his centuries of combat experience and that the prisoners wouldn't be allowed to carry weapons, Harry slowly opened an eye.

Harry was laying in the centre of wood panelled bunk, the other occupants were either ignoring his presence or had become uninterested in him when he hadn't woken up. As he began to move his extremities, Harry allowed himself to be noticed by the other prisoners. Sitting up fully, the other prisoners who Harry know noticed all wore the same clothes as he had been dressed in all looked at him expectantly. With all eyes on him, Harry inspected his new garb, feeling slightly disturbed that he had been stripped and dressed all while unconscious.

"You Browncoat or Fed?" asked a large man to Harry's left.

"You know we ain't supposed to tell," said a young-faced blonde man, whom Harry guessed would be around twenty-four, twenty-five years old. "The guards make it so we can't fight amongst ourselves, we ain't allowed to say which side we're on," explained the blonde man to Harry.

Rubbing the back of his head, Harry asked "How long have I been out?"

The prisoners looked slightly taken aback by Harry's question. The inhabitants of moons and planets generally had their own accents, Harry being 530 years old still harboured his English accent, an accent which had become extinct. The English accent hadn't been heard or spoken since the exodus, the prominence of American and Chinese culture in the verse had squashed it out. While back on Earth an English accent was normal, now it was striking and mysterious. Nowadays, the only reminisce of the English accent was a god-awful cockney speech that was spoken by the uneducated. Harry's accent was a refined English, not prim or proper, but clear and powerful.

Waiting a minute or so Harry became accustomed to his surroundings, with nobody answering his question he repeated, "How long have I been out?"

"Couple of hours," coughed the bloke who was sitting on the bunk atop the blonde man's.

"We 'eard you got yourself locked up for banging Milla," said the man to Harry's left.

The man to Harry's left, the blond man and the top bunker all looked at Harry expectantly. Harry didn't give this much mind as he was too busy running his hands across the walls of the bunk looking for a flaw that he could exploit. While Harry could perform magic without a wand, he still enjoyed using his phoenix feather wand. Unfortunately, the guards had confiscated his wrist bandolier which his wand was strapped to, Harry was just feeling thankful that he had charmed his wands appearance so that if anyone else looked at it, all they would see was a hunting knife. In this space with the bunks other three occupants, Harry was unwilling to perform wandless magic as it would cause the others to question him about it.

"Well?" asked the top bunker, causing Harry to return to the present and turn back towards his crowd. "Did ya get tossed in here for getting it on with blondie out there?" continued the top bunkers.

"Huh . . . oh, um . . . something like that," replied Harry, hoping that his answer would be sufficient. Evidently it was, the other three prisoners all grinned at each other. Obviously the female guard, who's name Harry now knew to be Milla, was some sort of legend of lust to not only the three prisoners besides Harry that were this bunk's occupants, but to the camp as a whole.

"You," said Harry pointing to the blonde man while still examining the bunk.

"Yes" replied the blonde man with a gulp.

"Do we get some sort of rec time around here, when are we allowed outside," probed Harry, as he had only staked out the camp at night Harry didn't know this.

"We, uh . . . we don't. All our food gets posted through that hatch on the door and if we need to use the bathroom . . ." the blonde man trailed off awkwardly pointing towards a hatch on the floor at the far end of the bunk, a hatch which Harry guessed to be a dug up pit.

"We think that the guards keep us inside so we don't get no ideas about runnin'," explained the man to Harry's left.

"Yeah, we don't know what sort of terrain is outside, and we don't know how many other prisoners are kept here so we don't get any ideas about taken over this place." continued the top bunkers.

"Eh, what you say your name was again?" asked the man to Harry's left.

"I didn't," replied Harry coldly.

"Well, I'm Vero," said the man to Harry's left while pointing at his own chest. "And that's Piye up there" continued Vero while gesturing to the top bunkers. "And over there is Hoby" finished Vero, causing everyone in the bunk to wince.

"Your parents didn't like you much, huh?" asked Harry the blonde man known as Hoby. While not as bad as Draco, Hoby was still a harsh name to give a child. The hoby was a type of fish breed on New Melbourne that had a reputation of making many a person whom sampled them contract a horrible case of diarrhoea.

While Vero and Piye chuckled, Harry thought he heard Hoby say something like, "That's not my actual name."

Resigned to the fact that his daring prison break out plan when down the shitter Harry climbed atop the bunk above Vero knowing that he couldn't try something at least until the others were asleep. After what seemed like ages of Vero and Piye discussing what they thought Milla would be like in bed, Harry finally heard the sounds that confirmed his roommates were asleep. Harry thought it extremely lucky that the guards hadn't removed the pouch from around his neck as they had bloody well removed everything else, while it was invisible to anyone whom wished to removed it, the pouch was not intangible. If the guards had felt around his neck, they would have stopped Harry from doing what he was about to do.

Retreating into the mokeskin dimension and the library within, Harry encountered Nick gliding around. Nick enjoyed indulging in Harry's vast collection of music and cinema, but as a ghost Nick relied on Harry to assist with this.

"Ah, Harry so glad you dropped by," said Nick. "Could you perhaps, ah, you know . . ." continued Nick gesturing to the cassette player which had reached its completion.

"Not right now Nick, where is Fawkes?" asked Harry craning his neck looking for his fiery companion.

"I do believe that he has availed himself to the sanctuary, just this morning I spotted him in the mountain ranges." replied Nick in his always helpful manner.

"Thanks Nick" said Harry exiting the library preparing to transform into his Horntail animagus form.

"But Harry . . ." said Nick to the now empty doorframe. Sighing Nick looked defiantly at the tape as if hoping that if he stared at it long enough he would intimidate it into rewinding itself.

After about half an hour Harry finally spied Fawkes resting on a mountain ledge, gliding down towards the spot and expertly transforming back into his normal twenty-six year old looking body just before he hit the ground. Taking only a short moment to survey his surroundings Harry informed Fawkes of the plan.

* * *

It was the heat that woke up Hoby, looking around sleepily he didn't take much notice of the bunk's wall that had been set ablaze. His brain finally realising what he was seeing, he yelped.

"What's going on fish-boy?" asked Vero, his head still buried into his pillow.

"He's gone at set the gorram walls on fire," Hoby replied.

It was at this point that Vero and Piye looked up, Harry was couched on the corner and was in fact setting the wall on fire.

"Are ya moonbrained, boy?" yelled Vero.

"I'm not crazy mate, and we're busting out," said Harry calmly.

Nudging Hoby out of the way, Harry grabbed the thin mattress that he was sleeping upon not two minutes ago.

"Alright, these walls are thin, it won't take much for them to come down and the fire would have done most of the work by now," continued Harry in the same tone as before.

Vero, Hoby and Piye caught onto what Harry was doing when Harry through the mattress against the flaming wall. Although Harry was planning to just knock down the wall with magic, he had to improvise with the mattress once the others had woken up. Now all four of them we're readying themselves to charge the wall and plough into the not-yet on fire mattress. The wall came crashing down once they all had thrown themselves against the mattress and they tumbled onto the compacted dirt that had been awaiting them outside the bunks.

"Not meaning to be tetchy or nothin', but what are we supposed to do about the dogs?" asked Piye.

"What dogs?" asked Harry now wondering if busting the wall down was the best idea.

"The gorram guard dogs," yelled Piye causing Vero and Hoby to run.

Harry, not knowing what else to do followed in a sprint. It wasn't long until Harry saw the dogs, and they were big dogs. Bloody big dogs. Teeth beared, these dogs who could reach hip-height were enough to worry Harry. As an animal person, Harry hated to hate animals. But these dogs were out for blood, so Harry made an exception. Reaching a wall, the four of them climbed quickly hoping to outrun the dogs, it seemed like a smart plan until the familiar face of the big, bad and ugly husband greeted Harry. Reacting instinctively Harry punched the husband across the jaw, while not enough to knockout the large man, it was enough to make him to drop his rifle. Grabbing the weapon and giving the husband a familiar blow to the back of the head, the four prisoners ran towards the next building.

As Piye and Hoby busted open the door, Harry fired a few warning shots into the room. This turned out to be unwarranted as the room was empty, it was a storage room. The four were happy to discover that this room stored their effects that had been collected upon their arrests. Probably quicker than any of them had dressed before they stripped off the prison garb and dressed in their own gear. Harry was happy to be reunited with his phoenix wand and his beaten brown leather jacket. Harry was lucky that the jacket he had worn for decades was made of a rich dark brown leather unlike the Browcoats who wore light faded brown coats, although he trusted his fellow prisoners for the moment, he wasn't sure he wanted to be mistaken for a Browncoat in present company whom could be a Browncoat or Alliance.

It was when Harry heard yells and gunfire, he knew the Fawkes had sprung into action. Harry had released him from the pouch as planned after they had busted out of the bunk. Fawkes was being the ultimate distraction, setting fire to anything that could burn. The others raised their eyebrows at Harry quizzically and Harry smirked back at them. Now reunited with their effects, there was no reason to stick together. Shaking hands with Harry, Vero and Piye legged it out of the storage bunk praying not to run into any more guards or dogs.

As Harry finished tying his holster to his leg and placing his pistol in it, he looked up to see Hoby still there.

"What are you still doing here, mate?" asked Harry checking his jacket, making sure he hadn't left anything.

"It seems to me that you are the kinda guy who is able to get someone out of this" said Hoby softly.

Knowing that there wasn't much time to waste, Harry against his better instincts nodded.

With the husband's rifle in hand, Harry counted down, "One, two, three" and he and Hoby busted out the door. Seeing that Harry knew where to go, Hoby let him take the lead and sprinted behind him. As they ran through the compound Harry shot any guard who got in their way. Harry had long since conquered any qualms about killing, finally reaching his destination Harry handed the rifle to Hoby and rammed the door. They had reached the control station. Knocking out the station managers and sitting down at the console Harry put into effect the action that would allow him to escape while also achieving his original purpose of a prison break. Expediently completing a keystroke Harry unlocked any and all locks on the compound, letting the prisoners out of their bunks. Both Harry and Hoby looked at each other, they communicated without words and took off from the control station.

Successfully navigating the hordes of escaping prisoners who were heading to the front and rear gates, Harry and Hoby had arrived at the ship hangar. As Harry looked back to make sure they weren't followed, Hoby ventured forward and examined a small transport ship.

"Yep, I can fly one of these," said Hoby gleefully.

"Fire it up then," said Harry to Hoby.

"Aren't you coming with me? I can get us to Haven in this ship, come on" urged Hoby seeing the look on Harry's face that said he wasn't coming.

Harry was engrossed in the sight before him, a few hundred metres away a collection of guards were yelling at one another, placing the blame on each other. Then a guard angrily whistled, the dogs came running to their master. The guard screamed at the dogs as if they could understand him, he cursed them for letting the prisoners get away. He turned his rifle on dogs who were looking at their master innocently with their heads tilted and tongues out in the way dogs did, shooting each dog in turn.

"Just get the engine going," yelled Harry to Hoby as he started running towards the guards.

"You're going back for the ruttin' dogs?" yelled Hoby exasperatedly.

The Master of Death pulled out his pistol and wand. Before Harry had reached them, they were already down, some dead, some not. Harry spit of the guards body, it didn't matter if the dogs were killers, they were just serving their master, they were loyal to the person they thought cared about them and he slaughtered them. A whimpering caught Harry's attention, a pup. A pup that was no more than four months old had survived the guards rage, Harry guessed the guard didn't see it due to its size.

Harry's bloody saving people thing chooses to make itself known at the oddest time, no it couldn't have shown itself on any other day, it struck Harry with full force now. Harry scooped up the scared pup, and jogged back to the hangar. Following Harry's instructions Hoby had started the ships engine and was preparing for take-off. Hoby exited the ship and met Harry.

"Listen, I know you didn't owe me anything, but thanks for helping us get out of there," said Hoby.

Harry nodded, but didn't reply.

"You know, I'm not that great a shooting or fighting, I'm actually not a half bad cook, but that's not the point, anyways, you know if there is anything I can do for you," said Hoby.

Harry nodded and made his way towards another ship with the pup in his arms.

Hoby looked a little disappointed that Harry didn't respond, however it was when Hoby was about to get back into his ship that Harry spoke.

"What's your name, your proper name?" asked Harry, still with the pup in his arms.

"Hoban, Hoban Washburne," replied Hoby confused.

"You can do me a favour, change your bloody name," said Harry, causing Hoby to grin. "Something tough, something like Burne or Wash, just not the fish that makes people shit," joked Harry.

As both men boarded their respective ships, Harry wondered if Hoby had been a Browncoat or Alliance. Harry was bought out of his musings as the pup that was now situated on his lap bit his forearm. When Harry looked back up he saw that Fawkes had returned from his distraction campaign and was eyeing the pup with curiosity.

Even after all these years, whenever Harry fired up a ship it still reminded him of Star Wars, which among his vast collection of films was one of the most watched. Becoming impatient Fawkes flapped Harry over his head with his wing which Harry imagined was his way of saying, "Punch it, Chewy."


	6. Chapter 6

**Author responses to reviews of the fifth chapter of Immortality in the Verse posted on either this site, Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **Jeff091:**

(Various sentence corrections.)

 **Author Response:**

 _I appreciate you notifying me of the mistakes in the chapter, even though I double-check the work some always slip through. Also the third correction you recommended didn't need to be corrected._

 **Sildet-ebrithil:**

I like the concept, but I agree with one of the reviewers. Harry's reasons for not wanting to re-establish a colony of wizards is not good enough. He has all of the tools to do it himself.

 **Author Response:**

 _Thanks for the review. Both you and another reviewer "Joe Lawyer" bring up a good point about re-establishment. Honestly, I just want Harry to integrate himself more into the Firefly universe before I considered bringing reestablishment into the story. Even then I am lacking ideas of how to do so. If you want a plausible in-story reasoning for Harry not committing to reestablishment, see below._

 _As I have stated before, Harry couldn't re-establish the wizarding world as they have scattered throughout the verse. Harry would have no way of identifying them amongst non-magical people. Yes, with his knowledge, experience and resources Harry could be bring them together, he could even educate them due to his vast collection of magical artefacts, but that doesn't matter because there isn't an instrument that identifies magical people over non-magical people. At the point of Chapter 5 in the story it has been 286 years since the magical coalition told everyone not to reveal themselves. With no education or guidance during that time I would think many would have abandoned or forgotten magic or are proficient in it but keep it hidden, as the verse is harsh and many people would want to use their gifts as weapons, especially in the unification war._

 **Malchior:**

The English accent isn't dead, at least, the cockney one isn't. Remember, Badger had an English accent, and River also imitated one. It's entirely likely it still exists, especially since one of the inner worlds is "Londinium"; it seems likely that, while American and Chinese were the two biggest influences, the UK was still important enough to get one of the first worlds settled named after London.

 **Author Response:**

 _To be honest, I forgot about Badger when I was writing that bit. I went back and changed that part, I didn't delete it, I just changed it. It makes more sense now._

 **The 10** **th** **Wand:**

Love Star Wars and liking the story so far.

 **Author Response:**

 _I enjoy Star Wars too, even though this is a Harry Potter - Firefly crossover, I think I draw elements from Star Wars for the story._

* * *

 _Chapter 6_

Heart pumping and gun in hand, Harry sprinted down to packed market street of one Ezra's main population hubs. Nobody screamed or yelled when seeing a young gun wielding and bloodstained man running about. Violence and crime was not uncommon in this part of the verse, the shop owners just placed their lock boxes underneath their counters and the shoppers lined up against the walls.

Hearing gunfire Harry swerved into an alley and ran through an open door closing it behind him. Checking his pistol's ammo and swiftly moving about the abandoned space that he had just entered, Harry looked for a window so that he could assess his situation. Using the sleeve of his old brown beaten leather jacket to wipe away a combination of dust and ash from a small window, Harry saw possibly the worst thing he could have in his current situation. Members of the gang that was chasing Harry were pacing around his ship and preparing weapons. Two of the gang were presented with flamethrowers by the others, they began torching his ship. While this would have been Harry sixth ship that he had ever owned, Harry had no particular love for it, it didn't house any important possessions, so Harry didn't feel bad that it was being destroyed. But the situation did make Harry mad because that ship was his escape route. Cursing when he saw a section of his ship explode, meaning that the heat had compromised his hull and caused the engine to explode. Feeling that they had successfully destroyed his ship, they began to spray paint their gang's symbol on what used to be his ship's ramp door.

Frustrated Harry knew that he had to find another ship to hopefully escape Ezra entirely, but if that wasn't possible as least get out of this particular population hub on Ezra. Currently Harry was situated in the Eastern docks, while most of the gang had split up to cover the other docks in case Harry showed up, there were only four gang members staking out the destroyed husk that used to be Harry's ship. Harry knew he could take the men easily if needed, but one of them would almost certainly radio for backup and invisibility was out because Harry was likely bump into someone in the street. Harry would have to indulge in an alternative escape.

Trotting out the door on four legs, Harry adopted the lovable stray persona perfected by the man who in his honour Harry chose this animagus form. Walking slowly and occasionally acting out dog-like habits, so not to be overt, Harry made his way slowly up the dock looking at each of the ship's in turn. He would often see the gang members observing the surroundings, looking for him. While tossing up the risk between gaining transport on one of these ships, or to try his luck on the other more heavily guarded docks, Harry was bought back from his thoughts when he saw a man he had not seen in about six years. Slightly in shock, Harry in his large black dog animagus form stared at the man for longer than may have been normal for a stray. His mind buzzing with trepidation, anxiety and suspicion Harry walked behind a section of half-demolished brick wall and transformed back into his 26 year old peak appearance. Checking that all of his clothing and possessions were intact, the clothing of an animagus should usually regain its appearance and position the same of it was at the point of transformation, but sometimes clothing might tear or things will fall out of pockets after regaining natural form. Satisfied, Harry peered around the corner of the partially demolished wall, he was happy to see that Hoby hadn't moved. Hoby was leaning up against a ship chatting with a pretty faced woman, whom judging from her hands and oily overalls was probably a mechanic of some sorts. Picking up small piece of brick, Harry threw it over the heads of the many ship crew's and dock workers and with a clang it landed on the side of the ship about a metre above the heads of Hoby and the girl. Picking up the brick piece and looking around for the thrower, Harry sent out a whistle to gain the attention of Hoby and the girl. Hoby held his hand above his eyes, shielding them from the sun, trying to see the identity of the thrower, finally seeing his face Hoby started walking towards Harry. Harry groaned when it became apparent that the girl was going to follow Hoby. As the couple neared Harry's location, Harry didn't smile, while Harry knew Hoby as a good person that was six years ago, a lot could have changed in that time. But when Hoby smiled at Harry, Harry hoped that that was a sign that he hadn't changed too much and Harry returned the smile.

"What . . . well, I . . ." spluttered Hoby exasperatedly while still grinning at Harry.

"Who's your friend, Wash?" asked the girl to Hoby, eyeing Harry's ragged appearance and bloodied clothing.

"Wash now, is it?" asked Harry, "Good to see you took my advice to heart."

"Yeah, well, couldn't be taken seriously with my old name, now could I" joked Wash, running his hand through the back of his hair. "What's going on, what are you doing here?" asked Wash now also taking notice to Harry's appearance.

When Harry eyed the girl suspiciously, Wash took note, "Ah, Kaylee, would you, ah, get the ship ready for take-off," asked Wash. Kaylee looking slightly uneasy at both of them nodded and headed back towards where they had been chatting.

"Listen Hob . . . I mean Wash, it's good to see you and all but," said Harry to Wash whilst looking at their surroundings and reaching into Wash's pockets for ammunition, "I'm in a bit a trouble, see" continued Harry, but was interrupted by a bullet hitting the brick besides them. "Move" yelled Harry, pulling Wash down the dock.

Gang members were discharging their weapons at Wash and Harry whilst they sprinted away. Harry wished he could have sent a protection spell over Wash's body, but any bullets would have bounced off the spell and possibly hit someone else. Turning a corner and hiding behind a wall, Harry shot three men as they ran past the same wall.

Wash took a radio from one of the dead man's belts and listened to the voices saying that the thief was on the Eastern docks, about a kilometre away from the destroyed ship and was accompanied by a blond associate.

Paling at the mention of himself, Wash asked Harry, "What the hell is going on?"

"Oh, just a bit of disagreement with the local colour. I pissed of the da gher da and he sent his men after me," responded Harry. "Listen Wash," said Harry grabbing Wash's shoulders, "you said to that girl something about a ship, do you have a ship, are you crew?"

"Yeah, I pilot a Firefly," said Wash.

"How soon can you get it in the air?" asked Harry hurriedly fishing more ammunition out of Wash's pockets.

"No time at all, it was pretty much fuelled up when signalled me and by now Kaylee's probably got her ready," said Wash continuously nodding in shock.

At the completion of Wash's answer, Harry pulled Wash further down the roads further away from Wash's ship.

As Wash was about to question Harry, Harry pre-emptively responded, "I some stuff stashed a few streets down. Your ship's got a ramp, right?"

* * *

"What do you mean he's gone, Kaylee?" questioned Zoë angrily.

"Well, we were fuelling up Serenity, chatting and such when someone got our attention, we walked over and then Wash told me to get Serenity ready to fly. Not a minute later they were being shot at and they ran down the docks into the streets." said Kaylee who was slumped against a crate in Serenity's cargo hold answering in a nervous tone.

"Kaylee, please, who was the person, the one Wash was talking to?" asked Zoë in a now friendly tone, knowing that Kaylee wouldn't respond well to pressure.

"I don't know, he was young-like. Maybe twenty-five or something, he was strapped and he wore a brown jacket, not like you and the captain but dark brown leather like. Oh, and he was all bloodied up and such, Wash definitely knew him, but wasn't expecting to see him." said Kaylee now regaining confidence.

"You don't think it's about the girl, Mal" grunted Jayne who was standing with his arms crossed behind Zoë.

"I don't see the merit in extracting a pilot from a ship whose crew could fly the ship in an emergency, Jayne" the Shepherd responded.

"This aint the work of the feds, more likely Wash got mixed up in something he weren't supposed to," said the Captain. "Did Wash ever mention . . ." asked Mal to Zoë.

"No, sir" responded Zoë quickly, "He don't have any reason to be in this mess, and he didn't mention meeting up with anyone here on Ezra."

"I still think it's the girl," said Jayne jerking his head towards the infirmary were River was sleeping.

"Perhaps this is about the medicine, the Captain did tell a lot of people about it," Simon interjected into the discussion.

"Yeh, the Doc's probably right," said Jayne, the crew all look at Jayne strangely whom had been extra nice to Simon the past week.

Rolling his eyes, knowing the exact reason Jayne was playing nice with the good doctor, Mal spoke, "I only told trustworthy thieves and criminal folk about the cargo, and this all well and good, but it don't get our pilot back, does it."

"Perhaps I could reach out to the councillor, she could . . .," said Inara, trailing off when they heard the sound of gunfire.

"I don't think that will be necessary," said the Shepherd.

"Kaylee, get this boat ready to fly," barked the Captain, "Inara get to the bridge and warm her up, the console is basically the same make as the shuttle."

As Kaylee and Inara ran off to their respective duties, Mal, Zoë and Jayne were readying their weapons. The Shepherd ran to the cargo door control panel in preparation for a speedy closure and Simon retreated into the ship to find River.

Hearing static coming from her radio, Zoë reached for her belt not once taking her eyes of the opened cargo bay doors. "Wash, baby, is that you?" asked Zoë into the radio, static responded. "Wash, come in," said Zoë.

Through the static and the sound of gunfire on the other end of the radio the audible voice of Wash said, "Get ready to close the cargo bay doors, we coming in hot."

Mal, Zoë, Jayne and the Shepherd all peered down the docks in search for Wash, whom supposedly was about to come in hot. It wasn't long before they saw a vehicle speeding down the docks, followed by a dozen mules carrying multiple gun wielders aboard.

Closer and closer the vehicles approached Serenity, the nearer they came the clearer it was that the lead vehicle was a motorcycle and was carrying two passengers. An unknown man was clearly driving the bike while occasionally firing a shot back at those following them, behind the driver was the unmistakeable dirty blonde hair of Serenity's pilot. The crew inside Serenity's cargo bay backed up as the vehicles approached, the lead bike turned sharply riding up the ramp causing the bike the skid and crash into the cargo bay, throwing both its passengers off.

Seeing the Wash was aboard Serenity, the Captain yelled "Seal it, preacher", this order was attempted, but not completed.

As the Shepherd slammed the button and the cargo bay door was closing, the gangsters fired makeshift harpoon weapons as the door, preventing it from closing. This enabled the gangsters to dismount their mules and open fire upon the crew. The crew dived for cover behind crates and the gangsters advanced. Seeing the situation, Harry who had been thrown from the motorbike and who had subsequently slammed into the metal stairs of the cargo bay let out a high and sharp whistle.

The gangsters turned their guns on Harry who had revealed himself with his whistle. Not a five seconds later did they regret not pulling their triggers immediately, four of them were torn apart by a set of vicious teeth in a gory blur. This sudden attack upon the gangsters enabled Harry and the crew to open fire on the shocked gangsters that remained.

When the last of the gangster's dead bodies crumpled, the crew look astonished at the large dog who had just killed multiple deadly assailants, saved their lives and was now sitting in the cargo bay happily panting and wagging its tail.

"Shoot the mounts" yelled Harry as he aimed his weapon at said harpoon mounts, Harry's proclamation and action broke the crew from their shock. As the crew's bullets destroyed the harpoon mounts aboard the dead gangster's mules, the cables that had held to door were released and the door slammed shut.

"So . . . what did you guys get up to, today?" asked Wash to the stunned, confused and thoroughly dumbfounded crew before passing out.

* * *

Harry stood with his back to the wall of the ship, he was watching his friend Wash simultaneously participate in an argument with a member of the ship's crew while an older black man applied an ointment to Wash's back, healing the large gash he had gotten when they less than gracefully disembarked from Harry's bike.

Harry wasn't quite sure what to do at the moment. Usually he would have already figured it out, this was a strange situation though. Harry couldn't do something that would land Wash into further trouble, but on the other hand Harry didn't know these other people.

There was the man in charge, the others had addressed him as Captain, he seemed like a soldier with the heart of a crook, or perhaps it was the other way around. The Captain was currently in the bridge making sure they weren't being followed.

There was also the pretty-faced girl who Harry was quite sure was the ships mechanic or engineer, she was currently leaning over the railing of catwalk above the ship's cargo bay whispering with another woman.

Said woman Harry was certain was a companion, she was dressed in exotic garb and held herself with purpose, while whispering with the mechanic she was eyed Harry cautiously, whenever Harry moved she had her eyes on him. Harry disliked that aspect of companionship, companions are trained not just in the art of pleasure, but also manipulation and detection, while Harry was observing and weighing up the crew, she was doing the same to him.

Standing equal distance in between the entrance to the infirmary and the stairs leading to the catwalks of the upper levels was a large man with what seemed to a permanent scowl fixed on his face. The large scowling man carried what looked to be a modified Callahan Full-Bore Auto-Lock gun and was eyeing Harry with a look that clearly said he would enjoy nothing more than to hurt Harry. Try as he might, the large scowling man could not intimidate him, Harry knew that if the Captain had wanted Harry killed, he would be, or more correctly they would have already tried, also whenever one of the crew made their way vaguely towards the area where Harry was standing against the wall, the large dog that had killed four of the gangsters would stalk towards them growling, but as soon as they changed direction or went up the stairs that were near Harry, the dog would return to Harry's side and once again happily wagging its tail.

It wasn't long before the older black man exited the infirmary, as he walked towards the large scowling man he studied Harry, not like the companion, but in the sense that he was studying Harry's nature. The older black man whispered something to scowling man while putting his hand on his shoulder before traveling up the stairs and probably going to speak to the Captain.

In the infirmary was Wash and the woman, still in argument, Wash had now buttoned his shirt back up and was using a full range of arm motions to further his position in the argument. When the argument had first begun, Harry had used a bit of magic to eavesdrop on their heated conversation, but once Harry knew that they weren't arguing about him, he stopped. It seemed that while the woman, whom Harry gauged was Wash's partner of some sorts, was questioning Wash about Harry, their argument began to be about something else entirely. From what Harry heard, Wash was angry about the woman's actions involving the Captain and Wash felt that she was more loyal to the Captain than to him.

As Wash and woman's argument raged further within the infirmary, Harry began to move about. He walked over to were his bike lay, when the large dog made to follow Harry raised a hand which signalled for it to remain put. Harry who had now placed his bike the right way up was still conscious that the large man was now more willing to harm Harry now that the dog was no longer at his side. Confident that they didn't intent to try to harm him, at least now yet, Harry turned his back on the large man and started to check the compartments of the converted saddle bags that were attached to his bike. Opening up a bag, Harry heard the distinct clicking sound of heels descending stairs and approaching him. Harry continued the charade of examining to contents of the bag, in reality he could repair anything broken with magic, but by checking by hand it would engage the crew's curiosity and make them think less about spacing Harry, as an immortal it wouldn't kill Harry if he was spaced, but he still didn't want to try it.

Harry unclasped a medium sized black leather bag, withdrew a camera from its depths and placed it on the bike's seat. Opening another compartment, Harry heard the rattle of broken glass and examined the remains of several smashed camera lenses. Again Harry could easily repair this, but felt it would be better not to in front of watchful eyes.

"Too bad," spoke the companion, "they looked expensive."

Internally sighing, Harry felt that it was in his best interests to let the companion try to analyse him, even though she wouldn't get anything from him, Harry felt that engaging in conversation with the companion would be beneficial because the Captain would probably trust her word about him more so than the frustrated and currently argumentative Wash.

"They were a gift" replied Harry.

A brief flicker of something Harry couldn't quite place crossing the companion's face. Harry's clear voice, but commanding sense of tone, along with his unusual accent had briefly thrown the companion off guard. She knew that Harry had noticed her reaction, but decided to continue. Smiling in a very companion-way, she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, obviously trying to get Harry to let his guard down with her.

"I must say, I don't often find myself in the company of criminal photographers" said the companion while sauntering around his bike, picking up the camera of the seat and examining it.

"You must have lived a sheltered life compared to most companions then" replied Harry holding out his hand for the camera which she gave him.

"I wouldn't say that, my life has been quite eventful, I've met many interesting people and heard many more interesting things" she said will slightly moving backwards from Harry still smiling at him.

"Obviously you are mistaken if you haven't met anyone with more than one attribute to their name" Harry said with pretending to examine his camera for any damage, while she didn't show it, this frustrated her, she needed Harry to give her his attention to get a good read on him.

"Well then, if you are so interesting would I have heard of you as either a criminal or for your photographs" she said while gazing at Harry, trying to get Harry slip under the presence of an enamoured woman.

"Did you study at House Madrassa?" asked Harry, he received a nod in reply, "then you know of my photographs." Harry then raised his camera vertically and took a picture with his camera of the companion, startling her with the flash.

"Probably not as good as my work for the manual" said Harry pretending to be mussing over the intact lens on his camera.

"You took photographs for the manual" said the companion half-startled from him taking her photograph and half-curious if what he said was true.

"A year back" said Harry.

Harry could tell that this further put the companion on the back pedal. "The Manual" was a sort of profile arrangement for companions, it was more prestigious that regular companion profiles on the Cortex, like what she would have. Only thirty companions were chosen each year to be specially photographed and presented in the manual, and these companions were the best of the best. The sort of companion that was in demand for the richest and most powerful clients.

"Didn't have the pleasure of taking your picture though" said Harry now leaning up against his bike closer to the companion. She had tried to flirt her way into making Harry vulnerable, now he was turning it onto her.

Hastily trying to regain her sultry smile and respond to Harry, she was interrupted. Wash was now exiting the infirmary and the woman was heading up the stairs. Turning his attention away from the companion, knowing that she would take this as a defeat, Harry watched as Wash came towards him.

"Are you okay?" asked Harry.

"Just a gash across my back," said Wash, now putting a fake refined voice he continued "alas, my wound didn't require stitches, yet I wonder if I will ever be the same again."

Harry smiled at Wash, it seemed that he hadn't changed too much.

"Do you need the, ah . . . the Shepherd too take a look at you" said Wash, his sentence had begun with concern but had ended suspiciously. Harry took notice that the infirmary had been stocked with no just medical supplies, but advanced medical tools. From what Harry had observed, the older black man now confirmed to be a Shepherd hadn't had the skill to use such tools.

"I mean despite the grave nature of my injuries, you slammed right into the stairs" said Wash quickly, to Harry it was obvious that Wash was truly concerned about Harry, but was also using humour to deflect his slip up.

"I'm fine" said Harry. The crash had caused Harry a large amount of pain, but his immortality had quickly healed any superficial wounds and any internal injuries were healed soon after.

"Are you sure, you took a . . ." questioned the companion, she stopped talking after she had put her hand on Harry's shoulder, she was trying to regain her position, still trying to put Harry off guard. But as soon as she touched Harry, the large dog who had been laying on its belly, silently watching Harry since he left its side, let out an intimidating growl in response to the companion placing her hand upon its master.

While the companion had been frightened and removed her hand from Harry, Wash just looked at the dog curiously.

"Is that the same one from . . ." asked Wash.

"Yep" replied Harry, knowing that Wash was going to ask if the dog was the same pup that Harry had saved on Muir.

"Same one from what, Wash?" asked the mechanic who had moved from her perch on catwalk and was now leaning against frame of the stairs.

"Well, back when we first met there was this . . ." Wash started to reply, but he was interrupted by the footsteps that signalled people were coming down from the bridge towards the group.

The Captain, Wash's partner and the Shepherd all came down to stairs and approached Wash and Harry.

"Oh no, don't let me interrupt your conversation. You know I love a good chat as much as the next fellow, but . . ." said the Captain, "I would surely like to know why my pilot went walk about and came back with a friend, a dog the size of a small steed and a whole lot of gunfire."

"I think we'd all like to know that" said the Shepherd.

Harry stood his ground as the dog situated itself next to Harry, but Wash shuffled nervously under the stare of his partner.

"Well, we . . ." began Wash, but Harry cut him off.

"Well, I got myself in a bit of trouble and I ran into Wash here and asked if he had a ship and then we came aboard, and you know the rest" said Harry.

The Captain, Wash's partner and the Shepherd were taken aback by Harry accent like most were, and the Captain and Wash's partner began looking from Harry's bloodied and rugged appearance, to the dog, to the bike, and then to Wash. The Shepherd on the other hand was once again staring at Harry, sizing him up, but not in a threatening way.

"What kind of trouble, that was a lot of firepower that they were carrying and we don't have room for any vendettas that come to our doorstep and especially ones that we aint got nothin' to do with" said the Captain moving his arm so as it to show me that he was strapped.

"What kind of trouble were ya in?" said the scowling man, the tone of his voice was greeted with a threatening growl from the dog, causing the man to back away.

"The Vens" said Harry with a sigh, his audience all showed signs of recognition upon hearing the name of one of Ezra's top gangs, "I got into a disagreement with the da gher da and he sent his men after me."

Seeing the look of the Captain and his partner's face, Wash interjected "Granted he did put in the crossfire, but he protected me from the Vens and he is my friend."

"We don't know the first thing about him, Wash" said the Captain.

"He's caused enough trouble" said Wash's partner.

Flooded with emotion seeing his partner take the Captain's side against his, Wash piped up, "He can help, he's good with a gun and a great driver. He could help us out" said Wash looking to each of the crew in turn.

"Hang on, mate. I never said I was . . ." said Harry, but was interrupted by the large man.

"His mutt's got some balls on 'em" grunted the scowling man.

As the mechanic was about to speak, she was cut off by the Captain, "Enough, Zoë, Inara and Wash come with me."

The Captain and said crew exited up the stairs to the shock of Harry who hadn't expected Wash to try to draft him into the crew.

Not five minutes later did the four return, the three looked solemn while Wash look disappointed. "We will drop you off at the southern dock of Ezra, deal" said the Captain.

While Harry had hoped they were going to leave this world, he guessed that these people had business on Ezra and Harry was content in having gained escape from his situation on the eastern docks.

"Fine" said Harry.

"Follow me, son. We'll get you something to eat," said the Shepherd gesturing for Harry to follow him up the stairs into the dining area.

As Harry followed the Shepherd, the dog followed Harry and the crew followed the dog, at a safe distance. Entering the dining hall, Harry began to notice more odd things. Upon the table was a crate of medicine, not normal emergency medicine you would find on a ship, but surgical grade. Noticing Harry's gaze, the Captain put a lid on the box and carried it back into the cargo bay.

Harry listened to the Shepherd talk, but his senses were on alert. As they were entering the dining hall, Harry had heard a clang of something being dropped in the engine room despite the crew being within Harry's sight. It wasn't until Harry heard a yet another clang that he knew something wasn't right, it wasn't the clang of an engine, but of someone moving. Using magic, unbeknownst to the crew, Harry discovered that there were two people being hidden in the engine room.

Harry ran from the dining hall into the engine room, yells from the crew followed him. He rounded the corner into the engine room and saw them. A man about twenty-eight and a young girl who looked younger than eighteen, the man was sticking a needle into the girls arm while she struggled.

As the Captain rounded the corner into the engine room he was greeted with Harry's pistol.

"What the hell is going on here, Captain?" growled Harry while the dog stalked towards the man until he dropped the needle. "The drugs in there, they aren't your normal penicillin. There highly potent sedatives, what are you doing to the poor girl" said Harry through gritted teeth.

"She a slave, are you selling here, or is she yours" said Harry unnecessarily but intimidatingly cocking the hammer of his gun, "Is she the ship's toy, pass her around until she starts to wake up and then you dope her again."

As Wash's partner started to edge towards him, Harry pulled out his wand from his wrist holder, but all the crew saw was Harry pointed a hunting knife at her.

"Son, you don't understand. You better put those weapons down before someone gets hurt," said the Shepherd.

Harry was about to reply when he was hit with a spurt of steam. Looking to his left he saw that the girl he was trying to protect had opened a value causing the barrage of steam to hit Harry. His vision becoming blurry, Harry felt weak in the knees and he crumbled. His head landed next to the feet of his dog who had been hit with the steam too. His eyes closing, Harry cursed the inconvenience of his immortality, sure gunshots and broken limbs were healed in a second. But concussions and oxygen issues weren't superficial and took longer to heal. Trying to raise his weapon, Harry saw that the scowling man was holding his gun to his head and Wash was yelling at his partner and the Captain while the girl crouched down and held her finger to her lips as if telling Harry that she had a secret and he shouldn't tell anyone.

The Master of Death was taken out by a small figured weaponless girl, if ever repeated Harry would instead have to change the story to that he was taken out by a hundred heavily armed people while he only held a scalpel blade, much less embarrassing.

* * *

"Are you here to tell me the good news, or are you here to give me my last rites" groaned Harry to the Shepherd.

Harry was just regaining consciousness and observing his surroundings. He was in what looked like a passenger bunk, while he wasn't tied up, they had taken his gun and wand which they assumed was a hunting knife as well as all of his hidden weapons. His pouch was still disillusioned against his chest, while this made Harry glad, it wouldn't be much help at the moment.

Sitting on a stool near the door of the bunk was the Shepherd, he wasn't smiling or frowning, but he carried an expression of neutrality.

"You do seem to have a knack of getting yourself into trouble, lad" said the Shepherd in a measured tone.

"Where is the girl, Shepherd" asked Harry through gritted teeth.

"She is sleeping" said the Shepherd, his response didn't pacify Harry but seemed to anger him further. "The situation isn't so black and white, son" continued the Shepherd, "she's a troubled girl, she has been through a trauma. The man who was administering the sedative to her was her brother, he is a talented doctor. Not unlike yourself, those two are in trouble as well. We didn't know who you were, besides the fact that you and Wash were old friends, we didn't know what you would do if you saw her, we thought you might contact the authorities."

With a sigh the Shepherd continued, "When you entered the ship so unceremoniously, I think all the excitement set her off, she is usually a peaceful child, and very bright. But her . . . condition can show itself in violet ways. It was when she refused to sit still that her brother decided it would be best sedate her because she may have revealed her and her brother's presence without meaning to, I can see how you thought . . . well, I can see how you thought what you thought."

Harry sat upright on the bed and leant against the wall. Harry searched the Shepherd's face for any sign of deception, he found nothing and sat staring at the Shepherd in silence.

"While your actions were misinformed, they were of noble intent" said the Shepherd now strumming his fingers on the cover of a pocket-sized bible. "We weren't sure that she hadn't killed you, the steam she hit you with was toxic and you caught a lot of it. That dog of yours caught a little, but not as much as you because he was closer to the ground," seeing the question Harry was about to ask the Shepherd supplied the answer, "he is still unconscious, but breathing. He is chained up in the engine room."

"Where is Wash?" croaked Harry, his voice still suffering the effects of the steam.

"He and the Captain have gone to complete a business transaction" answered the Shepherd.

"Wash is a pilot and unless things have changed, he wasn't too confident in his fighting abilities" said Harry, "he can't move that medicine, it is too dangerous especially here on Ezra."

"How . . .?" asked the Shepherd.

"Those meds were high grade, very expensive. Even with that girl aboard, you wouldn't need it and with that stuff, if you managed to get what I saw, I doubt you only took one crate" said Harry as he looked around the room.

The Shepherd was impressed with what Harry said and let it show in a small smile, "Nevertheless, the Captain is experienced in these matters, I am sure it will go smoothly."

Harry was a little hurt that the only ally he had on this bloody boat had left him.

"Inara, the companion that you were talking to earlier did some checking up on you" said the Shepherd causing one of Harry's eyebrows to raise in curiosity.

"She spoke to a fellow companion friend of hers whom had been selected to be featured in the manual last year and the year before, when Inara described you to her friend she confirmed without a doubt that you took her photographs and the others that were selected for the manual and despite you not using a name, whatever that may be, you made quite an impression on many people" said the Shepherd looking for a reaction on Harry's face.

"It's the dog" said Harry, "that's probably what makes an impression, he is pretty hard not to notice."

"Perhaps" replied the Shepherd, "but it makes me wonder about you more, from what we know from Wash, which wasn't much I should add, you have a loyal friend in him. He said that it wasn't his place to tell your story, but I think that might have been just because he was angry with the Captain and Zoë," once again seeing that Harry was about to ask a question the Shepherd pre-emptively answered, "his wife, but that still makes me curious about how someone who I guess you haven't been in contact with for years can think so highly of a man when he doesn't even know his name. And yet it isn't just Wash who thinks of you this way, for what Inara said you are an excellent photographer and yet you find yourself chased by multiple gangsters and a drenched in blood."

"A person can be more than one thing," said Harry, "and looking at you I think you know that better than most Shepherd. You hold yourself with purpose and don't look at me as a man who follows the book usually would, even if you don't want to size me up, you find yourself doing just that even if it is subconsciously. From the way you grip that book of yours and the conviction in which you push down your instincts I can tell that you truly are a man of god, but I don't think you always were, you have fought, but were you a solider? Now tell me Shepherd, do you believe I can be more than one thing?"

The Shepherd was stunned with what Harry had said and was uneasy with the fact that Harry seemed to have known all this by looking at him and only choose to use the information when he needed to. The Shepherd had chosen to stay with Harry in the hopes of finding out more about the mystery that was Harry, but instead found himself being unravelled, Harry had stripped him down to his core but not out of hate or malice, just to show the Shepherd how easily the information had come to him, and that he hadn't used the information for his own gain, but to show the Shepherd something that applied both of them.

Seeing that his words might have hurt the Shepherd, Harry said, "What is your name, Shepherd?"

"Book, Shepherd Book" he said his eyes now having a shade of coldness to them.

"If you say so, Shepherd Book" said Harry looking around the room steeling himself to communicate with the Shepherd while his instincts screamed the opposite.

"Muir, I met Wash on Muir during the war," Harry began to say to the listening Shepherd.

* * *

"It don't make no sense, Preacher" said Zoë, "while Wash didn't tell me much about him, he said that they met six years ago."

"That does correlate with the boy's story" commented the Shepherd.

"But that's just it isn't it, Wash said that when they met that he was a few years younger than the prisoner, but now he looks a good six years younger than Wash" said Zoë.

"He aint right, it the eyes, see" grunted Jayne while pointing at his own two, "there old lookin'."

"Whatever his story is, I don't think he is a bad person," said the Shepherd, he had just recounted Harry's story of how he and Wash had met and with Harry's permission had repeated it to the crew, minus the Captain and Wash who were still out and should have already returned.

"He isn't safe, when Jayne and Kaylee were searching him weapons while he was unconscious I saw a lot of things that pointed to him being dangerous" said Simon, "when Kaylee took off his shirt," this statement caused Kaylee to blush which wasn't unnoticed by the crew, "his whole chest was covered in scars, not just a couple of stab and gunshot wounds, I mean he had plenty of those too but, there was also a lot a scars that in my opinion were the signs of malicious torture, they were all over his chest and back, and we didn't ever look him over completely," this statement cause Kaylee to once again blush.

Inara, Jayne, Zoë, Book, Kaylee and Simon all digested the information while River who was listening was looking down at the floor as if trying to penetrate the direction of where Harry was locked up in the bunk.

"Hey Inara, aint you companions supposed to be able to read people and stuff, what did you get off'a him?" asked Jayne causing the rest of the crew to look at Inara expectantly.

"I could get a read on him at all, whenever I tried one thing he would spin it back onto me," sighed Inara, "he wouldn't let me in."

"You mean he didn't respond to your . . . charms, Inara" asked Kaylee with a smirk.

"Oh no he responded and he definitely appreciated them, but he knew what I trying to do" said Inara causing Jayne to become lost in his own imagination of Inara's charms.

"The only reason he told me what he did was because I think he felt he needed to" said Book.

"His head is too full" said River now looking the crew in the eyes and speaking in a way that someone would do to state something simple and obvious.

"What's that mei-mei?" asked Simon.

"He's got too much stuff in his head, he can't have that much in there" said River who now looked cross and was staring defiantly in the direction where Harry would have been on the lower level.

Jayne looked like he was tired of hearing River spout nonsense got up from the table. Zoë also looked like she didn't have time for River at the moment and Jayne and Book followed her to the cargo bay, "Jayne grab your weapon," said Zoë.

"Why, what's goin' on?" asked Jayne.

"Maybe nothing. Maybe trouble," said Zoë.

Not five minutes later had Zoë, Jayne and Book taken the mule to the spot of the transaction to investigate what was holding up their pilot and their Captain.

* * *

Harry had been sitting in the bunk close to an hour now, of course he was eavesdropping. What else was he going to do. While he wasn't in binds and chains, he was locked inside the bunk, Harry could easily escape without magic, but apparently the crew thought locking the door was security enough, to tell the truth he had been a little insulted that Shepherd Book didn't thing highly enough of him to warrant chains.

Harry had been eavesdropping since the Shepherd had left, Harry had given the Shepherd permission to recount the story of how he had met Wash, but was interested to see how the others would react. He was privately pleased that still hours after he and Inara had talked, he was still under her skin.

Harry began to fell not so content in his eavesdropping once Zoë, Shepherd Book and the large scowling man, whom from his eavesdropping now knew his name to be Jayne, had departed on a mule to find their missing crew. Harry was getting antsy once the hour mark ticked by and was about to bust out when he heard them renter the ship through the cargo bay.

But the fact that the crew had returned didn't put Harry's mind at ease once he figured out that the voices of the Captain and Wash were absent from the group. Once the crew had converged in the dining room, minus the young girl who Harry sensed through magic was sleeping in a bunk, Harry "let" himself out of the bunk and utilised his 537 years of experience to crept swiftly and silently into the cargo bay, equipping his weapons that the crew had taken from him, and walked up the stairs not once making a sound on the catwalk and situated himself out of sight behind the opening for the walkway in between the cargo bay catwalk and the dining room.

Harry was crouched behind the opening with his pistol in one hand and his wand in the other he peeked around the corner and saw Zoë collecting money into a satchel in discussion with the crew.

As Shepherd Book handed his money to Zoë he asked, "How do you know he won't just grab you as well?"

"Don't think that's like to happen. I walk in there unarmed, make the offer. This guy has his own code. Twisted as it may be, very excited about reputation," said Zoë who Harry could tell was keeping a straight face for the crew's sake, but was honestly worried.

"Reason? He's a gangster," interjected Inara, "The money he paid you for that other job was returned to him."

"Could be he's harbouring some resentment at us, putting his man through our engine" said Jayne while handing over a wad of cash, a large amount in Harry's opinion of the man, Harry wouldn't have pegged him as the loyal sort, but maybe for his fellow crew he was, maybe.

Zoë instructed the crew, "Wait a reasonable amount of time. If you don't hear back, you take Serenity and get out of this quadrant. This don't play out right there's no guarantee he won't come looking for the rest of you."

As Zoë rose from the table Harry decided it was time to make himself known, when Zoë turned her body towards the walkway opening she was greeted by Harry.

"Who took them?" asked Harry in clear and powerful voice with a slight hint of threatening.

When Jayne's hand made to go for his gun, Harry rose his own towards Jayne with the silent promise that if Jayne went up against Harry, he would get shot.

"A gangster named Niska, Adelai Niska," said Zoë who was looking at Harry in the eye but was also taking notice of his pistol and his hunting knife disguised wand.

"Shit" growled Harry not taking his eyes of Zoë.

In a flash Harry withdraw his pistol into its holster around his leg and pulled a small device out of his jacket and threw it at the centre of the room. With a tad of guilt Harry kicked Zoë in chest, knocking the wind out of her and pushing her into the centre of the room and with a bang the grenade went off with an explosion of toxic gas, within seconds the gathered crew was unconscious.

* * *

Feeling the shudder of the Serenity as it docked with Niska's Skyplex space station, Harry left the pilot's chair and walked with purpose down to the cargo bay. As he passed the dining room, his mind couldn't help but drift towards the crew of the ship he had borrowed. Harry had levitated their unconscious bodies into the shuttle that was rented by the companion, Harry had also sent a modified stunner at the young girl who was bewitched to regain consciousness at the same time as her fellows instead of waiting for him to deliver a reviving spell. Harry had released his dog and placed him in the shuttle with the crew and detached the shuttle leaving Harry able to take Serenity without endangering the lives of the crew, the dog would ensure that they didn't try to follow him.

Once the cargo bay door was lowered the space was stormed by Niska's men all holding Harry at gunpoint. He would occasionally receive prods in the back when the men wanted Harry to move faster, they were deliver him to their boss. Usually visitors weren't treated aggressively aboard the space station, but as Harry hadn't made himself devoid of weapons they were in their right to treat him as they wished.

As they walked down the halls, Harry counted the men and remembered the route that he had come. It wasn't long before Harry was ushered into a dimly lit anti-camber and led through a door into a room that was obviously designed for torture. Within a room, a steel cage had been constructed and on the room's walls were bright lights used to heat the cage and rapidly dehydrate the inhabitants, the floor was crunchy as Harry stepped on it with his boots, dirt compacted solid as if it was concrete, interesting choice.

A wispy haired man turned to see who had just entered the room and interrupted his game, when he saw who had entered he smile and embraced him, "Harry my son, what a welcome surprise."

"Good to see you too" replied Harry.

"Interesting friend you got there Wash" grunted the Captain through what looked like a bruised jaw.

"Don't look at me, he told a crime lord his name and didn't tell me," said Wash, it looked like he and the Captain had been subjected to the same torture, but Wash was crumbling.

"Have you decided to come to your senses Harry and accept my offer?" asked Niska gesturing for his men to lower their weapons.

"Not today, I see you've come into possession of my friend," said Harry in a friendly tone nodding in the direction of the Captain and Wash, "I'd like to get him back."

"Of course, of course, Harry, anything for you," said Niska, as he continued his voice changed into that of the crime lord, "but these men have wronged me Harry, they murdered Crow, you remember Crow don't you?"

Harry nodded with a straight face, but internally he felt that the world was a better place without Crow in it.

"I cannot simply let them go, even for you. But perhaps if you agreed to . . ." Niska said his slimy voice returning, but was interrupted by Harry.

"I only want one," replied Harry curtly causing Niska to scowl.

"Fine, but you hurt me with this Harry," said Niska gesturing for the torturer to untie the Captain.

"No, the other one" said Harry seeing that Niska had assumed that he had meant the Captain instead of Wash.

"Really Harry?" asked Niska, looking from Harry to Wash with a frown on his face, "I thought better of your taste, but if the other means that much to you," finished Niska gesturing to the torturer to untie Wash.

Once Wash had stumbled to Harry who was now holding him up, Niska signalled for his torturer to continue on the Captain. As Niska turned away from Harry, a sign that there transaction was over, Harry spoke up.

"For your understanding," said Harry withdrawing a long skinny wooden box from his jacket and handing it to the torturer to give to Niska, you never handed something to Niska. Niska opened the box and withdrew a gift that Niska knew was priceless, a genuine Earth-That-Was antique, a Tiffany crafted pair of silver candle sticks. "To accompany your lamp," said Harry nodding towards Niska.

Niska placed the candle sticks back in the box with reverence, walked towards Harry, clasped his hand at the back of Harry's neck and Harry did the same. No words were exchange and when Niska left with the gift, Harry thought that the gift may have made sure that the Captain didn't just loose an extremity.

As Harry half-walked, half-carried Wash back to Serenity he ignored Wash's pleas that Harry give him back in exchange for the Captain. Once Harry had closed the cargo bay door, heaved Wash onto the infirmary's bed and after giving him a quick check over to see if there were any immediate injuries, he strapped him in place for take-off.

As Harry made to leave the infirmary and make his way to the bridge to get them far away from the man who made Harry's insides scream in disgust Wash weakly croaked, "What about the Captain?"

Not turning to look Wash in the eye Harry responded before walking away, "I don't know him."


	7. Chapter 7

**Author responses to reviews of the sixth chapter of** ** _Immortality in the Verse_** **and reviews posted on any and all chapters of** ** _Immortality in the Verse_** **since the release of the sixth chapter on either this site, Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **"** **Vatsyayana69":**

with Harry's immortality and magic and all the time he had why is he a bum with no power, wealth or influence.

 **Author Response:**

 _Harry's isn't a bum. It isn't in his character is seize power, yet with all his possessions he is probably one of the wealthiest people in the verse. While Harry doesn't have political power or anything like that, it is shown in the story that he can inspire loyalty in almost everyone, even crime lords._

 **"** **HaywireEagle":**

Mmm. Comes of as king of heavy handed to me to be honest. Mostly because he fit a bunch of animals in a bag to save them. That was forced as all hell and just hard to swallow.

 **Author Response:**

 _Thanks for reading the story. But this is a Harry Potter-Firefly crossover story, it is about outer space and wizards, the basic premise is hard to swallow._

 **"** **themaltesefalcon":**

awesome last sentence! thanks for sharing!

 **Author Response:**

 _Thanks you for the review. I rewrote the last few passages as to end the chapter on that sentence._

 **Guest:**

Slow clap.

 **Author Response:**

 _Intermediately speeded appreciation._

 **"** **torlan2003":**

Great Chpater, I knew you were working in a Firefly universe I did not know that they would meet. (big universe) I liked it very much. Great interaction, I think Harry could have gotten both of them out for 2 candlesticks though. Untrained Wizard is a good explanation for River. She should not be able to read Harry's mind through his shields right? Looking forward to the next chapter.

 **Author Response:**

 _I appreciate the review. The story was always going to have Harry interact with the Serenity at some point, it seemed redundant for this story to occur in the Firefly universe if Harry wouldn't ever meet the characters we know. About the candlesticks, I hadn't even originally intended them to make it into the story until I was googling Niska so I could spell his name right in the story and I read that he had an Earth-That-Was Tiffany lamp on his desk. But I felt that its addition made some sort of sense as Harry would have lots of Earth artefacts magically preserved in his pouch. Also, while River may have a small amount of some sort of magic, I don't think she could become a wand-waving wizard like Harry._

* * *

 _Chapter 7_

Bang, bang, bang. The sound was heard over and over again, Jayne was pounding on the shuttle's hull as if he could get out if he hit it hard enough. Zoë was regaining consciousness and slowly taking notice that herself and the crew had been stashed in Inara's shuttle, and judging by the view out of the cockpit window, they had been detached from Serenity and left in the middle of Ezra's desert scape.

"Where are our weapons, Jayne?" asked Zoë.

Not moving from his position in the shuttle, still pounding on it with his right hand he pointed out of the window. All of their weapons were gathered together and sitting on a rock within their view.

"It's cruel, that is" said Jayne.

By now most of the crew had awoken, minus Kaylee and Simon who were still unconscious.

"I keep a small pistol underneath the pilot's chair" said Inara blearily her eyes half closed and trying to steady herself on the ship's wall.

Promptly Zoë went to retrieve it, it was gone.

Seeing the result of Zoë's search, "He is thorough," said Book, "but I think if we remove some of these floor panels, then Kaylee could trigger the engine and console to regain power."

Jayne unceremoniously threw Inara's pillows and blankets around lifting the floor panels up and placing them against the wall. Kaylee who had just be shaken awake by Zoë was being ushered towards the exposed hatch, a figure emerged from the dimly lit corner. The large four legged creature stalked towards the crew, forcing them to back away from the hatch. With a menacing bark he stopped Jayne and Zoë who had made to move passed him.

"He isn't friendly without his side," commented the also now awake River lazily as she arranged a few pillows on the floor so she could sit, "he isn't whole with his side" she continued looking at the dog her head tilted with a smile.

"I guess it means that he will come back for him," said Kaylee weakly.

"I suppose so" replied Book kindly to the frightened Kaylee.

* * *

Harry landed Serenity in almost the exact same spot where he had taken off from. Shutting off the engine, he walked down to the cargo bay ignoring what Wash was trying to say to him and he pretty much punched the cargo bay door release button with an unnecessary amount of force. He walked briskly towards the companion's shuttle putting on his sunglasses to shield his eyes from the sun. Reaching the shuttle he thumped four times on the steel door and let out a sharp whistle, the door opened.

The crew was situated in one half the shuttle, while an open floor panel was exposed in the middle, in between the door and the exposed panel was his dog standing in an aggressive pose clearly preventing the crew's access to the panel.

With another sharp whistle in dog backed against the wall of the shuttle, when received a nod of approval from his master the dog entered a relaxed pose. By looking at the dog now, you would have thought that it was incapable of violence.

"I found your husband" Harry said to Zoë.

Zoë promptly left the shuttle dragging the doctor behind, she didn't pay a single thought to Harry, she had other things on her mind that were more important. The rest of the crew cautiously moved towards the door, it seemed they were moving too slow in the young girl's opinion as she braved the distance and moved ahead of the group.

Instead of moving to the door, she crossed the shuttle and approached the dog, causing it regain its aggressive pose, the dog remembered what this person had done to its master. But as she neared closer to the dog, its resolve faltered, its growl lowered and its stiff legs softened into a casual stance. The young girl got to her knees and grasped the dog around its scruff and pulled its head towards hers. The crew fell silent, they young girl and the dog looked as if they were in prayer, they heads were bowed and their foreheads against each other's.

Harry who seemed to be the only one on the shuttle who wasn't in rapt attention of the girl and the dog sent out another whistle, effectively breaking the two's connection. The dog padded over to its master and received a pat on its side before it bounded out of the shuttle into the desert scape.

"Now you're something special, aren't you" said Harry to the young girl.

Harry's voice seemed to break the crew's trance and they began to exit the shuttle, it seemed that everyone besides Harry had noticed the look of jealousy on Inara's face as Harry's attention was fixed on the form of the young girl who half walking, half dancing her way back to the ship.

Once they had all left the ship, collected their weapons, they had all retreated to Serenity quickly, Harry guessed that their anger towards him was outweighed by their desire to see their Captain and pilot safe. After initiating the auto-pilot docking sequence and seeing that the shuttle had reattached itself to its home aboard Serenity, Harry cautiously made his way towards said ship.

Nobody took real notice of Harry as they were all crowded around Wash who was trying to leave the infirmary and was being bombarded with questions by the crew.

Harry made his way to his bike, he wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. But Harry couldn't stop himself from hearing the voices of the crew.

"Where's Mal?" asked Inara to Wash.

"Harry only got me out" said Wash as he made his way out of the infirmary.

"Is he alive?" probed Inara to Wash who had begun hobbling towards Harry.

"For now" Wash said.

Harry had kept his back to the crew, he couldn't face his friend. He heard footsteps approaching him and he guessed it was either Jayne or Zoë, Harry heard the distinct sound of a gun being withdrawn from its holster.

Harry withdrew his pistol and turned to see his attacker, his heart broke when he saw who. Wash was pointing his wife's gun at Harry's head, while Wash looked an inch away from death, his conviction was absolute. Harry was forced to point his gun at the head of his friend.

"Tell me you didn't, tell me you didn't rat us out to Niska" said Wash through gritted teeth and was extenuating his sentence with a slight jostle of the gun.

Harry who had his gun pointed at Wash's head, "I wouldn't have save you if I had" said Harry through similarly gritted teeth.

"But you and Niska" said Wash, "Niska knew you, he ruttin' treated you like a son, Harry."

"And if he hadn't do you think I could have got you out" said Harry.

"You could've used those goods to buy both our freedoms, you know that" seethed Wash.

"The artefacts weren't for your freedom, Wash. Make no mistake it was because of how I know that bastard that got you out, but my favour wouldn't have protected you. Niska let you go because I asked but, he would have come after you, that gift guaranteed your protection" said Harry calmly but not taking his eyes of Wash.

Silence filled the cargo bay as Harry and Wash had their guns aimed at each other, the crew had fanned out behind Wash, but hadn't tried to interfere and interject with the standoff.

"You're taking me back, Harry" said Wash.

"You don't get to ask that of me with a gun pointed at my head. I went in there for you, and I got you out. There are few people in this verse that I respect, but you earned mine back on Muir," said Harry, when he continued his tone became something akin to a shout, "but that doesn't mean you can ask shit of me. I don't give a damn about your Captain, I got you out because I thought you were my mate and to me that means something," moving his pistol slightly so it tapped the one Wash was wielding Harry continued, "But I guess that doesn't mean anything to you."

The crew were all stunned by Harry's words, Zoë was still standing resolutely by her husbands, her face didn't show it but she was worried about Wash, while he did sometimes participate in gunfire, she had never seen him like this.

"For whatever I owe you or you owe me, I need you to do this, I need my friend to do this" Wash asked for Harry's help, but was still holding a gun to Harry's head.

"There gonna kill him" continued Wash, "I wouldn't have made, he wouldn't break, he kept me from . . ." Wash lowered his gun, unable to finish his plea.

Harry didn't want to help, he didn't owe the Captain shit. But Wash was his friend and Harry knew that the outcome of this could break Wash. Harry had seen too much fighting to not see the signs of true mateship, Harry knew that Wash was going to try to get the Captain with or without him, but with Harry he had a greater chance of survival and success.

Harry lowered his weapon and nodded.

* * *

Harry, Zoë and Wash were crowded around the dining room table equipping themselves with weapons. While Zoë and Wash were getting kitted out to the high heavens, Harry had only taken an additional pistol and extra ammunition.

Zoë handed Wash and large six shooter revolver and instructed, "Here, six shots and then just drop it. Keep moving."

"This here is suicide," said Jayne as he ate an apple, "you do know that, don't you?"

Jayne continued, "You really think you can mount a three-man frontal assault on Niska's skyplex and live?"

Slamming ammunition into a gun Wash replied, "Technically, it's a two-man, one-woman assault. A unisex."

"More like a multisex," said Jayne with a smirk as he appreciated his own comedic genius.

"Grenades?" asked Wash offering them to Zoë.

"Oh, yes" she replied as she took some, "Thank you, dear."

When Wash offered them to Harry, Harry nodded and took two flash grenades and two regulars clipping them on the right side of his belt.

"He won't be expecting it" Zoë said to Jayne.

"Right, because they ain't insane" scoffed Jayne.

"You ever met him?" Harry asked Jayne, his question basically told Jayne to shut up unless he was helping.

The mechanic walked down the walkway and told the group, "Uh, I just go a wave from Inara, no luck with the councillor."

"Ezra's government won't attack Niska, he has them in his back pocket" Harry said to the group while examining the clips on his belt.

"What are they doing?" asked the mechanic to Jayne.

"Fixing to get themselves killed" replied Jayne.

"Wouldn't be my first time" said Harry as he redid the laces on his boots.

"Harry, you want any of this?" asked Zoë gesturing to the weapons lying on the table.

Picking up a handful of throwing knifes Harry asked, "Are you guys taking these?"

Shaking her head at Harry and turning to face the mechanic, Zoë said "We're gonna go get the Captain."

Confused the mechanic said, "Oh, good", turning to Jayne she asked "Can they do that?"

"No" Jayne replied plainly.

Turning to face Jayne and the mechanic, Wash said "You know . . . there's a certain motto. A creed among folks like us. You may have heart it, 'Leave no man behind'", Wash punctuated his proclamation by cocking an extremely small gun.

"You know that might have sounded better if you had picked a bigger gun" said Harry.

"Well next time I'll leave it you to deliver the inspiration speeches" said Wash.

* * *

As Harry, Zoë and Wash, who were followed by Harry's dog, climbed the stairs to the armoury, they saw the Shepherd, the doctor and the mechanic all equipping themselves with basic weapons.

"What's this?" asked Zoë to the others.

"We're going with you" said the doctor.

The mechanic looked utterly frightened but said, "If it were any one of us, Captain wouldn't hesitate."

Pulling an automatic rifle from the armoury locker the Shepherd said, "This should do."

"Preacher," said Zoë while rolling her eyes, "don't the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing."

"Quite specific" said the Shepherd while loading ammunition into the rifle, "it is, however, somewhat fuzzy on the subject of kneecaps."

"If you're looking for me to talk you out of it . . ." started Zoë, but was interrupted by the sound of a weapon being loaded on the catwalk.

When the group looked above they saw a fully kitted out Jayne, "What" he said at their surprised expressions.

"Let's go get the Captain" said Zoë with a cautiously optimistic look on her face.

Harry, Wash, Jayne and the dog followed Zoë up to the bridge, it seemed that she was in charge. Getting to Niska's skyplex from their position as soon as possible required some expert flying, they had to exit Ezra's atmosphere and slingshot themselves around the planet while moving outside of Niska's range, but without moving so far into the black that it would take too much time to come back for the approach. All the while broadcasting communication static to hide their presence, unlike Harry's entrance, they were going for a speedy whilst stealthy approach.

"You really think this will work" said Jayne, although he had decided to join he still was intimated by what they were going to do.

Wash, who was expertly pilot the ship said, "Well, except for the com static I'm piping out on all frequencies. We've been completely powered down since I fired the attitude thrusters a half-hour ago. We should show up on their screens as a radar glitch if they aren't looking too close."

"What if they are looking too close?" asked Jayne.

"Hell, I'm just glad we're on course" said Wash.

"Well, he didn't seem to have issues with it" said Jayne nodding his head to Harry who was sitting the co-pilots chair.

"I wasn't trying to hide a whole ship from their sensors, either. Your pilot is doing better at a harder job than me" said Harry plainly.

"It's like throwing a dart, Jayne, and hitting a bullseye six thousand miles away," said Zoë, "that's my man."

"You guys are just beautiful" said Harry sarcastically.

"You guys better get down to the bay. We'll be at their front door in less than a minute" instructed Wash.

As Jayne left and Harry made to leave, Zoë stroked her husband's bruised and battered face.

"I'm right behind you, baby" said Wash lovingly.

"Just beautiful" Harry again said sarcastically, not quite believing that that man had held a gun to his face with conviction just hours beforehand.

Reaching the cargo bay, Harry saw the crew constructing a makeshift impact bomb on their mule, perhaps the Shepherd wasn't as done with fighting as Harry had thought.

"Book, you good?" asked Zoë.

Looking at ease in the situation the Shepherd replied, "Yes, ma'am. Ready when you are."

Turning to the mechanic and the doctor who were fiddling with something Harry couldn't quite see, Zoë asked, "Kaylee, how you doing on that override sequence?"

Looking extremely nervous Kaylee replied, "Pretty sure this will pop their air-lock doors if Wash can get a seal his first try."

Strutting with his overly large weapon Jayne interjected, "I'm smelling a lot of if coming off this plan."

Zoë curtly replied, "You could've stayed in your bunk."

In a thoroughly aggressive display of manliness, Jayne replied while arming his weapon, "Could've, should've, would've."

"We're set" said Wash coming down the stairs armed with his weapons.

"Okay, people. If it moves, shoot it" instructed Zoë.

"Unless it's the Captain" said Kaylee nervously while looking completely unprepared with what was about to come.

"Unless it's the Captain" said Zoë reassuringly.

Making his way over to the Shepherd, Harry nodded towards Kaylee and the doctor whilst saying quietly, "Shepherd, I don't think they're going to be able to handle this."

The Shepherd nodded, this thought had worried him, "I know son, but they're loyal to their Captain, if we removed them from the fight, they would just find a way back in."

"Shepherd, you know as well as I do that they aren't soldiers, the others might be able to handle themselves if a fight, but what happens if those two freeze up, they're going to get themselves hurt." whispered Harry.

"I don't know what you want me to say," said the Shepherd.

"I want you to say that you'll protect them, but from what I have seen, you're getting sucked in. You're itching for some adrenalin, you're unreliable in this fight" said Harry angrily, leaving the shocked Shepherd behind whose mind was busy with thoughts wondering if Harry spoke the truth.

Walking towards Kaylee, Harry whistled and his dog approached him, "Hey Kaylee, isn't it?" asked Harry, she nodded. "My name is Harry and from what I can see you haven't really done this before" her gestured towards the gun she was holding incorrectly. As he corrected her hands he said, "I hear that you, the doctor and the Shepherd are going to be defending the ship", she again nodded too nervous to speak, "Okay, I need a favour, I can't take the dog in with me, they will recognise him and then recognise me," she nodded again, but looked curious, "I need to leave him behind, and I need you to watch him. He won't be any trouble and if you run out of ammo or you need to take cover you can just signal him with a whistle and he'll take care of it" she didn't respond. "Kaylee, nod if you understand", she hastily did.

Satisfied that she understood Harry turned to walk back to his position, Kaylee asked in a nervous voice, "What's his name?"

Harry and the others smirked, it seemed that Kaylee was the kind of person that it would matter too, despite their current situation, "Pup" replied Harry simply, still smirking.

The crew all felt the ship lurch as it connected with the skyplex, as they all regained their footing they saw that Harry pulling his jacket's hood over his head and obscuring his eyes while also putting on his sunglasses.

"What" said Harry at their questioning looks, "I think it would be best if Niska didn't know I was here."

Turning to Zoë and Wash he handed them to small transmitter beacons about the size of a watch-face, "Put them in your pockets and they will knock out the camera's as you pass them, I only three and I'm keeping the third, so we will have to lead as to knock out the camera first" said Harry as they nodded.

The Shepherd pushed the door release button and they heard sirens blaring. Simon turned on the mule while Jayne placed a weight on the accelerator.

Emerging in the wake of the exploded mule Zoë, Jayne, Harry and Wash expertly gunned down the guard and the approaching gunmen. From her position behind the airlock hatch Zoë tossed a grenade down the left side of the forked hall. Once a burning man died in front of them Zoë yelled instructions to the Shepherd, Kaylee and the doctor, "Second team, hold this position. We lose this ground, we lose it all. You're going to hold this ground. Understand me?"

Zoë received conformation when the Shepherd shot an oncoming gunmen in leg and Harry stabbed the prone man in his heart. The Shepherd looked disgusted at Harry's actions, Harry didn't care, that man would shot them and probably taken them to be tortured alongside the Captain.

"Okay then" said Zoë.

Once Zoë had finished Harry bolted down the left side of the forked hall putting down multiple gunmen in his way.

"Well, he's off in a hurry" said the doctor.

"Knew we couldn't trust 'im, he's probably going to tell Niska that we're here" said Jayne.

"He's going to get the Captain" said Zoë, while she said this with conviction, she really didn't know if it was true, but she trusted her man's judgement.

Zoë and Wash's trust in him was somewhat misplaced, while Harry had promised Wash to help and he was going to do that, he had to do some other things before. Ducking and weaving through the halls of skyplex and putting down anyone who raised against him, Harry saw the door the Niska's office. Using magic to determine the office's presence he confirmed that Niska was inside, opening the door a crack Harry saw the Niska was unconcerned with the alarms confident that his men could handle it, Niska was moving objects around his desk determining the best place to showcase his newly gifted genuine Earth-That-Was artefacts. Closing the door, Harry whispered a spell which melted the door's lock and when rapidly cooled by another spell was fused with the door's steel frame, sealing Niska inside for the time being. Harry knew that it was in his and the crew's best interests that Niska didn't see any of their faces, but Harry also knew that his relationship with Niska was too valuable for Harry to kill him.

Whilst Harry began to make his way towards the chamber which housed the Captain, the crew was busy making their way to the same area. As they made their way through the halls they saw all the men that Harry had killed, some had bullet holes, whilst some had gruesome stab wounds or snapped necks. The amount of gunmen the skyplex was immense, whilst Harry had taken care of many of them, Jayne, Zoe and Wash were still being attacked by more men whom just seemed to keep coming.

Harry skidded into the familiar anti-chamber and saw that the door was open, that wasn't good. Running out the anti-chamber, following a trail of blood he heard the voices of Jayne, Zoë and Wash.

Emerging from hall to the right of the main hall, Harry come up on Jayne, Zoë and Wash. Fresh blood covering his already blood stained clothes and something that they didn't want to think about stuck in his hair, Harry spoke quickly before Zoë could chastise him for leaving the team, "Your Captain's done a runner, he isn't in the same room as before."

"Follow" said Zoë as she lead them up the hall, they didn't encounter any men at this point, but they heard fighting coming from a room ahead.

Zoë heaved open the door whilst Jayne and Wash readied their weapons. As they entered the room they saw that the torturer that had worked on the Captain and Wash had crashed through a window and was fighting the Captain on a ledge. The Captain was pinned under the torturer who held a knife to him, with one slash the torturer severed the Captain's ear and held it victorious.

The Captain let out a yell of pain, but took the opportunity as the gloating torturer was distracted by his prize. The Captain delivered a strong blow to the torturer's abdomen causing him to stagger backwards slightly. Jayne raised his gun intending to finish off the torturer, but was stopped by Zoë.

Placing his hand on Jayne's arm, Zoë said, "Jayne, this is something the Captain has to do for himself."

The Captain who during Zoë's words to Jayne had begun to get strangled by the torturer rasped out, "No. No, it's not."

As Zoë said, "Oh" and she along with Jayne and Wash had begun to raise the weapons, Harry had already launched two of the throwing knives that he had taken from the crew's armoury in quick succession. Before the others had fired their weapons, the two knives sunk into their target. One knife pierced into the torturer's throat, whilst the other had landed in the torturer's forward. Blooding spurting from his throat, the body of the man fell backwards over the ledge into the automated factory pit, judging from the sounds that followed, Harry guessed that the body had been hit by a few machines on the way down.

The four of them approached the Captain who was slumped over the ledge's railing, as Jayne and Wash began to prop the Captain up by holding him under his shoulders, Harry picked up the Captain's missing ear and examined it. The cut was clean, it could probably be reattached as long as the Captain didn't die on the way back. Even though they had the Captain, the job wasn't over yet, the others realised this when they heard gunfire.

"You got him?" Harry asked Zoë looking at the Captain who couldn't hold his own head up.

As she nodded Harry threw the Captain's ear at her and ran towards the gunfire. Left, right, left again Harry bolted towards the docking bay were Serenity was. Seeing the torched mule in sight, Harry leaped over a pile of bodies and skidded on his knees into the opening of the forked hallway. Three armed men were approaching the ship, the Shepherd and the doctor weren't there, they must have went down the path opposite to Harry.

Harry had his pistol raised and was about the fire on the three men when he saw the young girl leave her cover and with Kaylee's pistol she fired three precise shots, each hitting the gunmen square in the chest, and she did all this without looking at her targets. Kaylee peaked from her cover and then stood up to approach the young girl. Harry couldn't quite tell, but he thought the young girl had shared an inside joke of sorts with Kayleee, Kaylee didn't laugh. The young girl was just smiling, it seemed that while she recognised her actions, she was oblivious to their effect.

"Now you're something special, aren't you" said Harry still on his knees beside the torched mule.

The young girl smiled at him, while Kaylee looked on the verge tears frightened that her friend could have killed those men and that Harry had seen it.

* * *

"You sure this thing's gonna stay on?" asked the Captain while fiddling with his newly reattached ear.

"This dermal mender creates an excellent tissue bond, it should be fine. Just don't fiddle with it" replied Simon whilst awkwardly demonstrating with his own ear.

"Be sure to thank the councillor for me. Awful nice of her to pull some strings and lend us this equipment" said the Captain to Inara not fully looking her in the eye.

"Least she could do" said Inara, even though she clearly meant that it was the least she, herself, could do, "I just wish you'd killed that old bastard."

"I got regrets on that score myself" said the Captain while turning to talk to Simon and the Shepherd.

Their conversation now over Inara walked over to Harry who was leaning against the stairs watching his dog, whose back leg Harry had just bandaged. Pup had been hit by a stray bullet while defending the position a few minutes before the Captain had been rescued and Harry had returned to Serenity, it seemed that the young girl Harry know knew as River had walked him back into the ship and chained him up moments before she had performed the feat the was still at the forefront of Harry's mind. Pup was fine now, he really didn't need the bandages, Harry had performed a protection charm on him soon after they had met, Pup could heal faster, run quicker and live much longer than any regular dog. This made River's actions all the more strange, now she had on more than one occasion interacted with Pup and not been hurt. Pup was generally weary of people and only let its master pet it, but somehow River had walked the wounded Pup back into the ship and chained him up, knowing that he would try to renter the fight.

Harry smirked as Pup pretended to limp slightly, Harry had trained the extremely intelligent dog to act as though he was a regular dog. Almost perfectly healed Pup occasionally let out a little yelp when walking to the approving nod and pats from his master. Harry was bought back to reality by the presence of Inara, she had been standing there for some time and expecting him to converse with her, if she wasn't so refined she would have coughed to announce herself.

Smiling at her, Harry lent back on the stairs and nodded towards where Simon and the Shepherd were packing up the dermal mender, "Tell me, do you just give expensive medical apparatus to all the men in your life, or is it anything in the spectrum of medicine because I've heard that there is a fantastic new analgesic being sold on Ariel."

Inara scoffed and leant against the stairs alongside him whilst absentmindedly watching Pup patrol the area where Harry's bike was, "Perhaps I could get some for a man in my life, but you aren't one of them."

Stretching and beginning to walk across the bay towards the opposite stairs, Harry said to Inara, "Didn't you hear, the Captain offered me a position, I'm crew."

"What?" said Inara, her voice almost becoming a shriek.

Harry pretending not to hear her as she began to argue with the Captain and he walked over to where Kaylee was sitting, she looked absolutely lost.

Harry stood at the foot of the stairs and said kindly, "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"What do you mean?" asked Kaylee looking frightened.

"About what River . . ." Harry began to say, but was cut off by Kaylee.

"River ain't had nothin' to do with it" whispered Kaylee quickly.

"Uh . . ." was all Harry could muster.

"I froze up and that dog of yours was laid up and then you shot those three fellas" said Kaylee, she looked at Harry with pleading in her eyes.

"If . . . if that's what you want" said Harry with understanding in his voice.

Kaylee nodded and got up to talk with Simon.

"That's enough" the Captain's booming command startled Harry, "this ain't your ship, so you got no say in the matter" said the Captain to Inara who walked away in a very un-companion-like fashion while uttering a few choice swears that she would never usually utilise.

"Harry" said the Captain as he made his way over to him, Harry signalled Pup that it was okay and he entered a relaxed sitting pose against Harry's leg, "listen, I know she ain't much to look at, but you're welcome as long as you need to."

Back on the skyplex, once Mal had been loaded into the infirmary Harry had offered Zoë that he would pilot Serenity back to Ezra. Harry thought that it would be best to give the Captain some space as he talked with Zoë and Wash, also Harry wasn't sure of the Captain's attitude towards him.

It was when Harry had landed Serenity that the Captain entered the bridge, he looked quite silly in his current state, his head was heavily bandaged as they needed certain equipment to reattach his ear, and they wouldn't be getting said equipment for another half hour. The Captain would have been forever one-eared if Inara hadn't secured the equipment. Despite his silly looked headdress and tired look, the Captain exuded a powerful presence, he stood with his arms cross and in a direction that showed Harry that he was strapped.

"I heard that you disabled my crew and stole my ship," said the Captain, "but as my crew so adamantly told me, you did so to rescue my pilot. But that don't take away from the fact that you escaped from a locked bunk and took it upon yourself to set off a gas grenade in my dining room."

Harry didn't say anything and didn't dare lose eye contact with the Captain, Harry was prepared to take him down if he drew on him, Harry didn't care what Wash felt if the Captain was going to try to kill him.

The Captain continued whilst not once breaking eye contact with Harry, "you could've ratted out the doc and the girl to the feds once you took the ship, but you didn't. But even then I'm hearing all different stuff from my crew about you, and not all good. While Wash and Zoë vouch for you I'm also hearing that you and Wash pointed metal not long after you bought him back. The Shepherd for the first time since he came aboard my boat can't form an opinion, he says you're a noble kid, but you're dangerous. Inara's got a whole list of not-so-kind phrases to apply to you, but she says you were vouched for by the gorram Companion's Guild. And I ain't forgot how Niska was with you and that you handed over some scratch that is worth more than anyone on this boat will ever see in their lives, but you gave it to him to protect Wash, you could've bought a moon with that gear."

The Captain continued, "You live at both extremes of the positive and negative. You came for Wash, and then you came for me, but I saw the bodies you left behind, that weren't killin' for necessity, that was rage. But I trust my crew and even if some don't like you, they respect what you did."

Harry was happy thinking that this would be enough to get him off the ship without them trying to kill him, good luck.

The Captain tore his eyes away from Harry's and looking around the bridge, "There's a place on the crew, if you want it. Today wasn't what we aimed to do, but it shows you what we get into. This life ain't pretty, but you'll have your own bunk and an equal share of any coin we pull."

Harry was floored with the Captain's offer, gods know he didn't need cash. Within the pouch's library was a vault filled with all kinds of currency and with all of the artefacts he had magical preserved, he was probably the richest man in verse. Harry had strived not to get close to anyone, he had done that for a long time, but Harry had done the exact opposite with the crew. Whilst it was because of Wash that he hadn't taken off, he had actually found himself comfortable in the ship, he wanted to be someone to its crew. He had tried to impress them, to get them to like him. He liked it here, damn, he liked it. Even though all of instincts had been screaming no all the time he had been in their presence, Harry didn't care, he didn't ignore his instincts like he had done on Tanna, but he had just pushed them to the side.

Harry gulped and croaked, "The dog . . . he needs to, uh . . ."

"The beast as well" said the Captain a little shocked to see Harry react as he had.

Back in the present, Harry was conversing with the Captain. It caused Harry a lot of effort to be personable, most people didn't warrant the effort. But even when he first came aboard he had chatted and flirted a little bit with Inara, Harry didn't chat, it was exhausting. Harry knew how to fake it, he knew how to crack jokes and appear witty all the while he was screaming with hate inside. But with the crew he wasn't feeling that way, while he wasn't being real with them and was thoroughly faking being personable, he was doing it because he wanted to. Harry couldn't truly be himself with them, he let a little of himself show, nothing deep but enough to appear normal whilst still being on guard, always on guard Harry had to remind himself.

"Book will help you to your bunk" said the Captain loud enough to get the Shepherd to hear his instructions.

Harry nodded and made his way over to his bike, Pup following. Harry picked up his camera bag and unhooked a guitar case from his bike and was greeted by the Shepherd.

"I hear you've been drafted into this crew of misfits" said the Shepherd.

"Do you count yourself one them, Shepherd?" asked Harry.

"I feel that this might be the place that needs the most help, and that is why I'm here" the Shepherd responded.

Making his way to the stairs as the Shepherd led the way, Harry asked "You sure that isn't just an excuse to indulge your old life."

"I don't know son, but as you said a person can be more than one thing. Now I am just trying to be who I am most happy with, and that is a man under god." said the Shepherd.

The Shepherd gestured to Harry's new bunk, it last free bunk of five on the crew's deck, you opened the hatch with your foot and climbed down into the room that had a bed, draws, toilet, some storage space and a small partitioned shower that was large enough to house maybe two and a bit people but not much more.

As Harry lowered his camera bag and guitar case into the bunk and began to climb down, the Shepherd saw that Harry's dog was pacing around the entrance to the hatch.

"I think you may have a problem" said the Shepherd nodding towards the dog who was now pawing at the grate.

"He's smart, he'll figure it out" said Harry who was now putting stuff on his bed.

The Shepherd looked on in amusement at the dog whose brain was feverishly trying to determine how to get to its master. It was strange to see such a large dog look so helpless. The Shepherd was about to insist that Harry help until the dog began to back up. It was standing in front of Wash and Zoë's hatch and leapt in a single bound through Harry's hatch and landed on his bed, it was lucky that Harry's bunk was arranged so the foot of the bed was near the hatch's ladder.

Laughing, the Shepherd said to Harry who was patting Pup, "I think you might want to change your clothes before breakfast, I'm cooking in about an hour."

Harry looked down, he hadn't changed his clothes since before he had been chased by the Vens on the docks. Examining himself in a dusty mirror, Harry recognised that most of what he was covered in was not his blood. It seemed strange that he had once been a kid that disarmed Stan Shunpike instead of killing or stunning the imperiused slave. After 537 years of existence, Harry didn't feel like that anymore. As far as Harry was concerned it was fine to put someone down if they would do the same to you. During his years Harry had become extremely adept at defending himself, Harry was deadly with an arrangement of weapons and was tough to beat hand-to-hand. Harry was always proficient at defensive magic, his time had only strengthened his skill, but Harry rarely used it, perhaps it was because he was fine in a fight without magic or maybe it was because he thought that magic hadn't done shit for him lately.

Harry threw his empty pistol, as well as the one he had taken before storming the skyplex, onto his new bed. Harry withdrew his knife-disguised-wand, Harry sent a quick self-cleaning spell on it and the blood disappeared, the wand was charmed with a complex charm and transfiguration amalgamation, it did the normal disguising thing, but it also functioned perfectly as a blade. In Harry's eyes, all he saw was his phoenix feathered wand, but it was much more, the amalgamation spell enabled it to act perfectly as both a wand and blade, while not effecting the efficiency of either. As Harry threw the knife-disguised-wand down next to his pistols he wondered if through his life had he used it more as a wand or as a blade.

Harry took off his jacket and heavily blood stained shirt, the scars that covered his body didn't look all that fresh, he mustn't have been shot in the storming. During the earlier years of his immortality, Harry had tried to keep his body mostly safe, not much worked. When he was younger, he had tried to bewitch his skin to protect itself from injury, but his powers had negated it, they strength of his immortality had effectively burned any spells out of his system. The only thing that he had discovered that had worked was an organic vapour that he had produced from burning the leaves of Rowan trees and shrubs. The vapour would imbue his body's defences and strengthen its vulnerabilities. But Harry had stopped doing it after a few years, it wasn't because he was worried about his supply, the pouch dimension not only housed magical and non-magical fauna but also provided a stable environment for the wild growth of magical and non-magical flora, Harry had stopped simply because he had found that he didn't really care anymore. His body would always be in its peak twenty-six year old form, and his immortality would protect itself against major injury and quickly heal minor ones, so Harry didn't really care about the pain from his injuries, when he was wounded his body would heal itself and scare over, he could take the pain, for all Harry cared he could take death if it came.

The only thing that bothered Harry was the burn mark across his spine, he had received it when Fawkes had decided it would be fine to show a newborn phoenix around the library, it was not fine. The phoenixes were proud beings, but as younglings they were terribly skittish. During a tour of Harry's "workshop", a collection of rooms that perfectly preserved magical and non-magical artefacts that Harry deemed valuable, the youngling phoenix had been startled by the entrance of the ethereal Nearly Headless Nick, the youngling spewed flames trying in a naïve attempt to disable the intruder. When Harry had entered the workshop to identify the disturbance, he had been hit with the phoenix flames also. Nothing had been destroyed in the excitement, that is what preservation charms are for, but even now Harry still felt some residual heat radiating from the burn mark, it seemed almost poetic that it took an immortal creature to wound an immortal. So fucking poetic.

* * *

Things were . . . okay. Harry had been crew on Serenity for just shy of two months since the Niska incident. So far Harry been a useful addition to the crew, he had shown that he was an extremely proficient fighter and expert marksmen. Harry had even demonstrated his skills at flying, during a drop that turned ugly, Jayne and Wash got laid up and Harry had been put in a position in which he had to fly the ship out of a dangerous canyon cove while being tailed by pursing ships. Harry had successfully gotten Serenity out of the canyon cove, with only a few scratches and had systematically disabled their followers, Wash had admitted that even he couldn't have done better. Harry was an excellent pilot, which was mostly because of his long lifetime of experience, on the other hand Wash was a natural flier, pure instinct. One could wonder who the better pilot out of them was, but after the canyon incident Harry made an effort to never show Wash up at it, piloting Serenity was his job and he wouldn't outshine his friend at his trade.

During Harry's stay he had mainly stuck around Wash, while Harry had interacted with the crew at varying degrees, both he and they were still wary of each other.

The Captain had started to treat Harry like one of the others after he had shown his metal on a few jobs, it seemed that the Captain was the kind of man who appreciated someone putting their skills into action rather than someone who had a lot of skills.

Zoë attitude towards him was complicated, she hadn't forgotten what Harry had done for her husband and her Captain, but she had spent enough time around soldiers to notice a man who hadn't left the war behind him. Zoë knew that Harry and her husband were close and were getting along like a house on fire so she was trying her best to treat Harry as she would a friend, but she couldn't put the knowledge that nobody really knew a lot about Harry out of her mind. She couldn't make heads or tails of Harry, he would act cold and withholding from the crew and only say enough to stop them looking to closely at him, but then he and Wash would chat and laugh like old friends, it unnerved her.

Jayne had begrudgingly admitted that Harry was a good addition to the crew once he had seen Harry's skills as a pilot and the way he could handle himself in a fight. Any respect Harry had gotten from Jayne had been squashed down once Jayne discovered that Harry was getting an equal cut in their jobs. Before Harry had come aboard Jayne had been receiving an equal 20% share on most jobs, 12.5% if the job required the services of Inara, the Shepherd or the doctor; River was forbidden by her brother to participate in any jobs and as such never received a cut. Now that Harry had joined up, Jayne was only getting an equal 16.67% share on regular jobs, and a lowly 11.10% share on jobs that required the extended crew. Jayne didn't like that, no matter how fond he was of that mutt of Harry's he wasn't happy that he couldn't spend his scratch like he did before.

Kaylee had been standoffish to Harry at the beginning, because of the River incident, she was scared that Harry would tell the Captain about what happened and that the Captain would send her and Simon away because she was dangerous. Not since Harry had approached Kaylee on the stairs had she mentioned what River had done, despite what she told Harry she knew that River had killed those men and it had rocked her to her core, she thought that the little girl who she played with couldn't hurt a fly, how wrong she had been. Kaylee knew that Harry had agreed with what she had said about the incident because he knew that she needed to hear it. Kaylee had expertly avoided Harry in case he confronted her about it, but she was put at ease when he had found her alone and he hadn't probed further. She had begun to think of him in a more favourable light, she and him could converse easily now, he knew a lot about engines and god knows she could talk about them for days. During their conversations she had tried to find out more about him, but he wouldn't let her in, he would just crack a small joke, maybe flirt a little, and change the subject. While Kaylee was comfortable with Harry, he was still a mystery to her.

Inara couldn't stand Harry, or perhaps she couldn't stand the way she acted around Harry. It drove her crazy that she, a companion, couldn't crack this kid. Since Harry had begun his tenure as crew, Inara had relentlessly needled Harry, utilising a multitude of companion traits to get him to slip, she couldn't. And the worst thing was that no matter how many times she cursed him, she would always try again. Harry had an effect on her, he was a challenge, men had always been simple to her, even the Captain whom held a place in her heart was easy to read, but Harry didn't give her inch. She could always get a reaction out of the Captain when she tried to charm him, but when she tried to crack Harry with her seductive attitude, he would turn it back on her, every damn time, worst still she would find herself falling under his presence, she would be in trouble if it wasn't for her extreme dislike for him.

When interacting with the crew Harry found himself making parallels with his old life on Earth's wizarding world, specifically with the Shepherd. Harry thought that the Shepherd had aspects of an amalgamation of his old friends, Dumbledore, Lupin and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Perhaps it was this parallel that caused Harry to refer to the Shepherd as "Shepherd" instead of what the rest of the crew would, "Preacher" and "Book", just like how when Harry thought about them he still found himself sometimes referring to Dumbledore and Lupin with their titles of Professor.

The doctor was easy, from looking at him you could tell that he came from money and had higher tastes. But from what Wash had told him about his and his sister's past it was apparent that the doctor had a lot of courage to do what he had done. It was easy for Harry and the doctor to connect as Harry was the newest addition to the crew and the doctor still felt like an outsider to them. The doctor was surprised that Harry was so well versed in medicine, from looking at Harry you would guess that he was a no-good thief, but in reality he was an intelligent man who was leagues smarter than the doctor.

Simon some became standoffish towards Harry once he realised that Harry had an interest in his sister. When Simon was talking with Kaylee she had told him that Harry had asked about River, this was reiterated by what Book said that he and Harry had talked about. Apparently Harry had asked everyone about River in some way or another. Simon knew that Harry wouldn't turn them in, the Captain had assured Simon that he wouldn't let that happen, but he didn't like the way Harry looked at his baby sister, not one bit.

River enamoured Harry, he found himself enthralled with her. Of course Harry only showed this as if he was curious, but internally she had his attention more often than not. She was special, there was something about her, perhaps something she didn't even know that she had. This girl was smart, kind, intelligent being, the kind of person that wasn't often bred in the verse, but she had been damaged, she had been tampered with. From what both Wash and the Captain had told him, River had been accepted into an education program for the highly intelligent, an Alliance program. They had taken the teenagers and fiddled with them, tortured them, tried to improve them. Neither Simon nor the crew knew to what end, but when Harry utilised his legilimency for the answer to why she had been used so, it confirmed Harry suspicions. She had been changed for a specific purpose, she had been changed into a weapon, a dog on the alliance's leash.

Harry wanted to know more about her, he had tried to probe fully into her mind using legilimency only to be blocked at every turn. Harry wasn't even sure she knew that he was trying to get inside her head or that she was blocking him. River wasn't using any sort of conscious magic, but perhaps some sort of watered-down naturally occurring physic ability. It was hard to figure out how much River knew about it, Harry had only approached her a handful of times and every time their conversations would start out normally, they would chat and River would respond in her River-way, but when she asked him a question in her disjointed and random sentences and Harry changed the subject, she would lash out. During these episodes Harry could feel her needling his skull, it wasn't like wizard probing in the sense that they had focus point of the mind, River unleashed an onslaught of what felt like a thousand needles at once burning and twisting in his brain. Her methods were so wild that it took Harry a few seconds to raise his mental shields, something he hadn't had to do in centuries, and when Harry was defending himself mentally she would attack him, the crew would have to pull her off him, Harry was a good fighter but she was quick. River could duck and weave around Harry delivering a multitude of punches and kicks, after the crew would just stare at Harry worriedly, only he had this effect on her, only Harry could be her companion one minute and then be the object of her aggression the next.

There was an instance where Wash, Harry and the Shepherd were playing poker in the common area outside of the infirmary, while Pup lay on the floor beside Harry. Occasionally River and Kaylee would pass them, it seemed they were playing a game of some sorts. On River and Kaylee's fifth circuit passed them Wash began to notice that Harry would pay more attention to River than the game.

"I wondered Harry, you always seemed to be a smart kind of fellow, but recently I have begun to think differently," said Wash evenly while not looking up from his cards.

"Funny, I thought the same about you," replied Harry instantly.

Wash looked a little miffed that his joke had been cut off so Harry gave him back the conversation lead.

"Why did you think it?" asked Harry.

"Well every time the girls have ran passed, your eyes have been glued to River's ass and you haven't noticed that half of your chips are missing," said Wash smugly.

The Shepherd chocked a little of his water at Wash's statement while Harry pretended that he was more concerned with the amount of chips in front of him than what Wash had said.

The Shepherd straightened himself up and said, "River's no more than a child, she . . . she," he finished with a flustered stammer.

"She," interjected Wash, "is seventeen, eighteen in less than a month. I ain't encouraging you Harry, but it's a shame to discover that you . . . are in fact a normal human male."

Truthfully, Harry had only been watching River because whenever she passed by he felt the familiar thousand-burning-needle pressure on his skull. Okay, sure, Harry found River attractive, she was pretty, she was young, she was graceful, she was smart, and . . . her legs, bloody hell her legs. Yes, he had found himself staring in her direction, sure sometimes he felt his insides leap when he saw her. But Harry had thought it was her mystery that attracted him, fuck Wash, why did he have to go and say that, now all he could think about was the same young women in those short sundresses and those bloody combat boots. Fuck Wash, damn him.

While Harry's mind was busy, he didn't let it show to either Wash or the Shepherd, "You owe me eight chips, mate" said Harry pretending to examine his chips.

Wash picked up the eight chips and made to hand them to Harry but closed his hand when Harry reach for them.

"I'll give them to you if you admit that you were staring at her ass, Harry" said Wash cockily.

"I wasn't . . ." began Harry, but was interrupted by Wash.

"Or was Inara standing behind my shoulder Harry, so it was her ass" said Wash laughing still holding out a closed palm.

"She wasn't . . ." started Harry, again he was interrupted by Wash.

"Yep, okay, it was Kaylee then, I knew that something was going on between you two, whenever you two would talk she would get a permanent blush. Okay Harry I apologise, it wasn't River's ass, but Kaylee's" said Wash who was thoroughly enjoying the look of frustration on his friends face.

"I didn't . . ." began Harry, again to be interrupted by the laughing pilot.

"Oh Harry, say you didn't. Betrayer, you and my wife, how could you" said Wash in a mock affronted tone, even the Shepherd had begun laughing at Harry's discomfort.

"I wasn't staring at anyone's ass, Wash" said Harry through gritted teeth.

"Whose ass are we staring at?" said Jayne who was just entered the infirmary adjacent common area.

"No one's" growled Harry as he forwent Wash's hand and took Wash's chips straight from his pile.

"Wash seems to believe that Harry here harbours an attraction for the young Tam girl" said the Shepherd who was coming down from laughter.

Harry was about to respond when Kaylee and River made another circuit passed them. Harry's gaze drifted, it was Wash's fault, he wouldn't have if Wash hadn't made Harry think about it. Fuck wash, bloody idiot. Harry's eyes found River's ass, she was chasing Kaylee who was carrying something that was the prize of the game that she and Kaylee were playing. Harry took all of her in, she was wearing extremely heavy brown leather steel capped combat boots that looked completely out of place on her small frame, she had on thick workman's socks, probably what filled out the boots. Moving up her body she was wearing and blue and purple patterned short skirted sundress, on top of it she wore a faded blue unbuttoned cardigan. Her hair wasn't tied back and when she ran it flowed behind her. With each step she took, she moved with the grace of a ballerina, Harry guessed that she was so light-footed that if she weren't wearing the boots, she wouldn't have made a sound. Harry couldn't help but notice that when she moved the skirt of her sundress swayed and rode further upwards showing more and more of the curvature of her ass.

Wash and the Shepherd knew exactly what Harry was looking at now and laughed.

"As you were saying" said Wash prompting with his hand for Harry to continue.

"I . . ." stammered Harry, if he still wore those old spectacles of his he was sure they would have fogged up at this point due to the death stare he was giving Wash.

They were all bought out of their conversation when they heard a scream. River, was standing stock still half a dozen metres away from the card game. She stopped her scream and turned to face Harry.

"You've got too much" she said in a threating tone.

River sprinted towards the card game and launched herself at Harry. Before anyone could really react she landed a fearsome punch against Harry's jaw. She drew back her arm in preparation for another punch, she had gotten lucky the first time, Harry wasn't going to give her another chance. Now standing Harry shoved her backwards with his shoulder and readied himself. There were yelps from the gathered crew and Harry thought he heard Kaylee yelling for the Captain. Jayne was now trying to hold back River as Harry had shoved her towards him, the Shepherd was trying to calm her down while Wash still in his chair looking utterly shocked and still awkwardly holding his cards.

River threw an elbow behind her hitting Jayne square in the nose and broke free from his grasp. Barrelling past her brother, the Captain, Zoë, Inara and Kaylee who had skidded into the area just in time to see Jayne get knocked around by a fifty kilogram girl, River came upon Harry wildly throwing punches at him which he blocked expertly.

She would punctuate each attack by saying things like, "There's too much in their", "it's locked too hard", "you won't let me see, I always see" and then she mixed it up by calling him things like, "idiot", "ancient", "fake", "yī dà tuó dà biàn", "killer", "corpsified deadman", "braindead", "ho tze duh pi gu" and the always classic "goat shit".

Through all the yelling, River's and the crew's Harry didn't retaliate, Harry was trying to enter her mind through legilimency but her current state only seemed to strengthen her defences as she tried break into his mind . . . with no avail.

"It's locked up, it won't let me in, I need to see, I need to see. It's fake, it's all fake and there's too much in there" screamed River while she tried her hardest to take Harry out.

As the two fought and they made their way into the cargo bay they were followed by the stunned crew. Kaylee had asked if they should interfere, but the Shepherd had said that either they or River would get hurt. Zoë, Wash, Inara and Jayne all looked dumbfounded at River, she was usually harmless, crazy but mainly harmless, now she was unleashing a mixed bag of martial art moves that she shouldn't be able to pull off while Harry looked like he was trying to restrain himself from fighting back. The Captain shouted at Simon who was preparing a sedative in the infirmary. They all stopped when the saw what happened next.

River had ducked under Harry's arm and taken his hunting knife from his leg bandolier, pushed Harry against the stairs and held his own knife to his throat.

River straddled Harry who was on his back against the stairs and said, "Let it down, I need to see."

"River, just back off" said Harry, while he couldn't see the knife, only his wand he could feel its transfigured counterpart against his jugular.

"I want to see, I want to see you, but it's locked too hard," said River breathing heavily.

Seeing out of the corner of his eye that Simon had handed the Captain and Jayne a needle each and that they were approaching behind River, Harry said, "River, I don't want to do this."

With fury in her eyes River slammed her knee on his groin hard, Harry yelled.

Breathing heavily due to the fact that River was still putting pressure on his balls, Harry said, "Fuck it."

Harry head-butted River and she felled backwards dropping the knife. While River scrambled backwards Harry kicked the weapon that she had just dropped away from where she could pick it back up. Still on her backside River let out a kick to Harry's left knee, a sickening crunch was heard. Feeling his knee heal itself Harry was not deterred, he moved upon River who had stood back up. She threw a punch towards him which Harry ducked and returned with full force.

River stumbled backwards clutching her eye where Harry had just hit her, taking the advantage Harry rushed her, tackling her against the wall. Harry held his forearm at her throat as he pressed the full weight of his body against her.

"Bloody hell, River. What's your problem" said Harry.

River didn't respond and Harry signalled with his free hand for the others to give her the sedative. Wash's words sprang to mind at the exact wrong moment, with his forearm against her throat River had quickened breath, her chest rose up and down against Harry's and he hadn't realised that his eyes had travelled down towards her heaving cleavage until River took the opportunity while his eyes where averted to slip out of his grip.

Out of his hold River backed up towards the stairs but was stopped in her tracks when she heard the threating bark of a creature trying to protect its master. River turned her head and saw Pup who was standing on the stair ready to bit off her hand if she tried anything. Once she had turned around Harry advanced, as he moved towards River he took off the wall of the cargo bay a heavy chain and whipped it at River's back and she fell forwards against the stairs. River attempted to push herself up, but Harry unremorsefully kicked her in the back of the neck causing her to lurch forward at knock herself out due to the impact of her skull on the metal stair.

The crew all rushed forwards towards River fearing the Harry might have seriously hurt her and Harry slumped against the wall of the cargo bay absentmindedly patting Pup who had joined Harry.

"Took your time" said Harry to the dog.

Harry used his wand that Pup had retrieved for him and sent a healing spell towards River's prone form under the guise of examining his knife. River hadn't really been hurt, she was tough. Inara handed Simon a small bottle, he uncorked it and held it under her nose rousing her. Harry watched as Simon and the Shepherd helped the only slightly awake River towards the infirmary. Wash extended his hand to Harry pulling him up.

Harry wasn't really listening to what Wash was telling him, his eyes where fixed on River who was being practically carried to the infirmary.

Wash seeing that Harry wasn't listening followed his gaze towards River, once he figured out what Harry was staring at he said, "Don't, just don't."

Harry responded, "Now she's something special."


	8. Chapter 8

**Author responses to reviews of the seventh chapter of _Immortality in the Verse_ and reviews posted on any and all chapters of _Immortality in the Verse_ since the release of the seventh chapter on either , Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **"mobulis":**

Why didn't they terraform mars?

 **Author Response:**

 _Because it wouldn't fit into the firefly story._

 _An in-universe reason is that while they could terraform Mars, it wasn't a resource rich planet like Earth. The only resource rich planets were far away. I think I may have already answered a similar question to this before._

 **"jediprankster":**

This is only the second Harry Potter/Firefly crossover I have read. So far I like it. Once I got past the first few chapters that were mainly back story infodump, it got very good. Pretty much when he met Wash was the point when it got good. The back story was needed but I think it may have stretched out a bit too long.

I look forward to seeing how this develops. It looks like you are setting up a pairing between Harry and River, and I think it might work. Though I suppose they could just continue alternating between friendly and antagonistic as well.

Keep up the good work. And if you haven't read _Browncoat Green Eyes_ , you definitely should. It's on . I don't know if it is anywhere else.

 **Author Response:**

 _I have read Nonjon's Browncoat, Green Eyes and I enjoyed it, also it is on Harry Potter FanFic Archive as well as . Another Harry Potter-Firefly crossover story is Raul Fictious' Stepping Into the Sky, it is okay but was abandoned. Jrf Steel's Space Wizard is another good one but isn't very lengthy. M0untainC1imber's Alone in the Verse had promise but was abandoned._

 _I wrote this story because I couldn't find any others to read, I hoped that people might read mine and be inspired to write their own as I think both fandoms make great stories._

* * *

 _Chapter 8_

Harry groaned inwardly, he needed sleep. Harry had been sitting in as pilot for twenty-six hours straight. Zoë had asked Harry if he could cover for her husband on the bridge for a few hours while she pulled Wash towards their bunk, they hadn't come out for a whole day. Sure Harry had magic and all that, but everyone needed sleep. Harry turned over and readjusted his pillow trying to block out the sound of paws scratching at the metal grate above, Harry had forgotten to let Pup in before he crashed. Harry had made it easier for Pup to get in and out of the bunk, but he still needed someone to push open the hatch. Harry had warped the steel of the ladder so when the bunk was opened, the ladder was diagonal instead of straight. Harry had also fixed a plank of pile wood on the underside of the ladder so Pup could now walk up the ladder as well as jump inside. Harry was about to raise his wand to open the hatch when someone else did it for him.

"Incoming" said the voice of one of the crew Harry was too tired to identify, they opened the hatch.

"Ohpff" grunted Harry as Pup leapt through the hatch and onto Harry's side, usually he would just aim for the foot of the bed, but this time he was making a point about Harry not letting him in.

Harry heard the closing of his hatch, most likely by the person who opened it in the first place. Harry's face was partially obscured by his pillow and blanket, so he said in a muffled voice to the panting dog, "Just, just lay down and don't make too much noise."

Harry patted Pup on his side after pushing him away from the head of the bed, that wasn't going to happen and hoped to at least get some rest before the crew was scheduled to pick up the Captain and the goods from the rendezvous point.

For five hours Harry tossed and turned, he always was a restless sleeper. Harry guessed that he may have gotten three hours of sleep collectively that night. Harry rarely had a solid block of sleep, mostly disjointed periods of dozing off or intense dream filled sleep which left Harry felling drained despite having slept. Most nights it was the dreams, horrible dreams, dreams of his friends, his family, all dead, all dead because of him. While Harry knew this wasn't the case, during sleep he was more willing to accept what his subconscious was saying. If rotting corpses of his friends claimed that it was through his actions that they were killed, then Harry was forced to believe them, forced to wallow in those thoughts. Harry only awoke this time because Pup had kicked Harry with his back legs when Harry wouldn't stopped moaning and tossing in his sleep, dogs needed sleep too.

Giving up his attempt at sleep as a bad job, Harry rose and stretched. Most people would change into their clothes when they awoke from sleep, Harry slept a little unusually. Harry had had too much experience with people who wanted him dead to feel safe when asleep. Harry was always ready to run, always ready to fight if needed. Harry never took his boots off while he slept, they took too long to lace up if he was in a hurry and you never wanted to become stranded without shoes, he only ever took off his boots when he showered. He also didn't remove his trousers when he slept, again the time it takes to dress is too long if he needed to spring to action, during sleep he had his belt undone, but never taken off. Harry only took his shirt off when he slept if he was in a bed, in his current residence that applied. He always removed his weapons, but not his holsters or leg and wrist bandoliers, his pistols, throwing knives and hunting knife-disguised wand rested on his bedside table, the former always being fully loaded.

Harry used his teeth to unclasp the military-style brown leather watch face cover while he used his boot to push the toilet back into the wall. Harry swore when he realised that he had overslept, he was supposed to be up by 0200 hours and according to his watch he had slept until 0340 hours, the crew used military time when doing a job. Harry shuffled over to his view screen which was located near the newly warped ladder and called up to the bridge.

"Ah, Harry you're up" said the overly cheery Wash.

Harry nodded still half-asleep and adjusting to the light of the view screen that illuminated his dark bunk.

"You right?" Harry asked gruffly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Thought I'd cut you some slack and let you get some rest, I owed you" said Wash.

"I think your wife screwed me more than she did you, she said a few hours" grunted Harry who was still squinting at the bright screen.

"I… " began Wash, but was cut off by Harry.

"A few hours Wash, not a whole day and some spare," Harry said.

"Well, I… fuck Harry, I just… " rambled Wash while fiddling with the console which Harry knew wasn't necessary.

"But don't worry, mate. It makes it all better that you cut me some slack and let me sleep for a few hours extra. While you got to share your bed with your wife, I got to share mine with a freakishly large dog that is so heavy that I can't lift him off the covers and I have to freeze my ass off" said Harry who was getting some steam now that he was waking up.

Wash froze and didn't say a word, both him and Harry stared at each other through their respective view screens. Wash broke and started laughing, Harry couldn't keep it together and joined him.

The pair stopped their hysterics when Zoë entered the bridge, she moved towards her husband and acknowledged Harry on the view screen, "The Captain's sent the signal, he should be good for pickup in twenty."

"Ku" said Wash.

Zoë went to leave, but turned back, "Harry, I had to let that damn dog into your bunk this morning, it kept on scratching at the grates."

Wash and Harry were silent for a moment and then in unison burst out laughing.

Zoë left the bridge shaking her head muttering to herself, "Wo de tian a."

Harry ended the call still chuckling, some things just seemed funnier between two mates. Wash and Harry were just that, they were mates. If he was forced to compare, Harry would say that it was like how it had been with him and the Weasley twins, it was easy and fun. Harry often spent time on the bridge with Wash, Harry would sit in the co-pilots chair and play his guitar, crack jokes and just chat with Wash. Also, whenever Harry did play his guitar it was always to an engaged audience, Harry didn't write songs, but nowadays Earth-That-Was media was non-existent, so any song that Harry played would be heard for the first time by anyone who listened, despite the songs being centuries old. Harry sometimes noticed the crew lingering around or that they stayed within earshot of his bunk when he played, it wasn't like Harry was holding a concert, he would just sometimes play in the bridge or when they were lounging around the dinner or common area. Harry could tell that the crew had their favourites, but it wasn't like they ever requested for him to play, Harry just played when he wanted to. Although Harry had noticed that Inara often entered the room whenever he was playing, he may have taken notice to the type of songs she liked and played them when she was around. Harry would be lying if he said that it didn't make him feel good that the crew like his playing, Harry thought that the crew felt that they were also getting to know Harry more through the songs, this wasn't exactly true as Harry didn't write them, but Harry was possibly the only man who knew them now, so in a way him sharing them was showing the crew something.

Harry put on his gear and made his way up into the ship followed by Pup. Harry was almost bowled over by the Captain who was exiting Inara's shuttle with a bloody nose, at first Harry thought that Inara might have hit him, but that isn't her style, the Captain probably got knocked around at the rendezvous somehow or another. Harry was making his to the bridge when the Captain's voice echoed over the intercom.

"Crew meeting in the dining area, now" said the Captain's voice.

Harry was passed by Wash, Kaylee, Jayne and Zoë who were making their way from the bridge to the dining area.

"You comin', kid" grunted Jayne.

Harry gestured to Pup and said, "Needs food, two minutes, start without me."

After a brief interlude during which Harry's sunglasses accidently fell out of his top pocket and into a big bowl of dog breakfast Harry finally began to make his way to the meeting.

As Harry approached he heard Inara say, "Idiots"

"Who's idiots?" asked Harry as he entered the room while trying to fix his wrist bandolier which had come loose.

"You" Harry heard someone exclaim in anger.

Harry looked up quickly and saw a woman pull the Captain's pistol out of his leg holster. Bang, she fired, but not before the Captain lunged at her, the bullet missed its exact target but hit its mark. Harry fell to the ground, she had shot him in the leg through and through missing the bone, Harry fell on his side at an odd angle, he landed on top of his pistol and was twisted in a way that prevented him from reaching his secondary pistol or the throwing knives that he had keep since the skyplex incident, Harry's wrist bandolier that hadn't been properly fastened had fallen off and landed out of his reach. Harry lunged for the only thing he could reach in his position, he threw the fork expertly at his assailants head, she narrowly avoided it as it impaled itself in the pipe that stood directly behind her.

Quick as a flash Harry rolled on his back, grabbed his pistol fully intending to give her what she had tried to give him, he stopped.

"What the fuck, Dani?" Harry yelled at her.

Jayne tackled her to the floor, the Captain retrieved his fallen weapon and pointed it at her head with the same contempt as Harry.

"So… you guys have met" whispered Kaylee.

"Gorram déjà vu" said the Captain.

"I'm right" Harry told the Shepherd who had moved over to Harry to inspect his wound.

"Go neong yung duh" Harry heard Dani shouting at him.

"Chwee ni duh, meh lien duh jyah jee" he shouted right back at her.

"What's going on?" asked Wash to the crew at large while helping Harry to his feet.

"Captain don't trust her, she's stone cold and heartless, she'll stab you in the back for a tiny bit of scratch without hesitation, don't trust her" Harry shouted.

"I'm heartless, screw you Harry. You left me on that god-forsaken rock with nothing" Dani screamed at Harry.

Wash and the Shepherd were now holding Harry back as he yelled, "Bullshit, I left you a pistol."

"With one shot, you son of a bitch" she yelled.

"I think I made it pretty clear that your skull was a perfect place to put it" Harry yelled.

"Please tell me you didn't marry her too" said Inara.

"Oh, we did a lot more than that, sweetie" cooed Dani to Inara.

"Oh fuck off, Dani. We never got married" said Harry.

"Harry, honey. You know as well as I do that we didn't need to be married to act as husband and wife" said Dani, the statement referred to Harry, but seemed to be directed at Inara.

"Dani, that's a new one. Saffron, Bridget, Dani, they all people you killed too" said the Captain who still had his gun pointed at her.

"Huh, Saffron and Bridget, such shitty names, they suit you well, you should keep them" spat Harry.

"Oh, Harry don't think for a second that I'm any one of those girls" pouted Dani.

Inara looked at Dani with pure hatred and loathing, the kind of look that is reserved for someone who makes you embody rage, "How do you know Mrs. Reynolds?" asked Inara.

"Mrs. Reynolds, oh no Captain you didn't" said Harry.

"You bet we did Harry, and you were half the husband he was" responded Dani.

"We weren't married," Harry yelled, "No matter how many times you asked, I told you we weren't going to get married, and now more than ever am I glad about that."

Harry's statement earned a smirk from Inara, "So now we've established that Harry is a smarter man than our Captain I ask again, how do you know each other?"

Harry was about to respond, but Dani took that away from him, "We hooked up when we both were going after the pearls of the wife of a Magistrate on some backwater world, but then we discovered that it would be much more… rewarding if we worked together."

"Yeah, and then you went and fenced those damn pearls without me" said Harry.

"Oh, Harry, honey. If I remember correctly you forgave me for that," said Dani as she traced her fingers across her body suggestively, "in fact I think you forgave me multiple times."

Zoë, Inara and the Shepherd all looked at Harry as if telling him that he should be ashamed of himself, the Captain looked like he was tossing up between killing her right then and there, Kaylee had a deep scarlet blush, Wash scowled at Dani while Jayne looked at Harry giving him a non-verbal high five.

"And then you tried to smoother me in my sleep" said Harry.

"You punched me in the face" Dani responded.

"Because you tried to smoother me" yelled Harry.

"Because you said you wouldn't marry me" screamed Dani.

"And that was such a huge mistake" drawled Harry sarcastically.

"I could've made you happy" said Dani causing all the women to scoff.

"Yeah, sure, so happy. I can see it now, we would've been so happy, for fuck's sake Dani you tried to kill my dog," said Harry.

"No, no, no, Harry, I was providing for our future. You know as well as I do that those West Collie crosses are worth a fortune. They're only bred on Muir and they're highly desirable, large, intelligent, loyal, lethal. So what if I stole a few of your guy's little pre-pups, they would've made us rich" said Dani explaining in a tone that showed that she thought that she was the reasonable one.

"Then you tried to kill my dog, so you could charge more because there wouldn't be any more samples available" yelled Harry as he lunged at Dani but was held back.

"Oh I'm the bad guy, I tried to provide for us and I'm in the wrong," said Dani.

"Why the hell did you think I left you on that desert on Triumph with a single bullet, you psychotic bitch" yelled Harry his voice getting louder.

"Enough," boomed the Captain, "I think we covered the how'd you get together portion of this screaming match, we need to get back to the plan."

"Plan," said Inara.

"She'll leg it as soon as your backs turned, Captain" pleaded Harry.

"You can't trust her, Mal" said Inara.

The Captain then put on an expression that seemed out of place, as if he was steeling himself, "Could be that's so," said the Captain calmly, "Lord knows, ain't none of us here criminal masterminds," the Captain's tone changed to that of mocking directed at Inara.

"So if you got something better, Inara, something not petty. I would sure be willing to hear it" finished the Captain talking directly to Inara, placing Harry out of his mind.

Inara huffed off muttering something under breath and the Captain continued, "Now the question is… "

"Hey, hey, hey. I'm not working with her" said Harry.

"Now, ain't that sweet Harry, but if you were here at the start of the meeting you would've known that they need me for this job," said Dani sweetly, "I'll think you'll find that you're the expendable one of the crew today."

Harry looked at the Captain for him to correct her, he didn't. Harry spat on the floor and stormed off to his bunk.

* * *

Harry was walking along the cargo bay catwalk waiting for Inara, as she descended the stairs he approached her, "Listen Inara, can I catch a lift with you, just until the Bellerophon hub, it'll take me a week to get off of those stupid water hovering floating estates," asked Harry, he spied Dani peeking out the window of a door obviously eavesdropping, but Harry really couldn't give a damn about her right now.

Inara surveyed Harry as if she was figuring out if his request was genuine, "Fine" she responded.

"It's just with the bike… " Harry continued.

Inara sighed and responded, "Fine."

"And the dog" Harry prompted.

"I said it was fine, Harry" said Inara losing her patience.

Zoë ascended the stairs adjacent to the both of them, "We should be on Bellerophon by 06, I figure the job should take… " said Zoë before being interrupted by Inara.

"Please, I really don't want to know" said Inara.

"Least it's your kind of world," said Zoë knowing that Inara seemed hurt by the Captain's actions, "Got appointments made?"

Inara shrugged, "The minute we hit atmo I'm gone."

Harry coughed getting the two's attention.

Inara rolled her eyes at Harry and corrected herself, "The minute we land, myself, Harry, the beast and the stupid motorcycle are gone. I've booked a few choice clients, should help me get my mind off of Mal's descent into lunacy."

Zoë nodded and turned to Harry, "You know you don't have to leave, you can just sit this one out, you can co-pilot, you'll still get an equal share."

"I know, but I can't work for a man who doesn't trust my word," said Harry as he picked up his camera bag, guitar case and started walking down to the cargo bay followed by Pup.

Harry could hear Inara trying to tell Zoë that Dani would betray all of them, Harry had already said that and they were still going on with the plan, their choice.

After landing on a secluded desert area of Bellerophon Wash helped Harry wheel out his bike and into Inara's shuttle which she had detached a few metres away so Harry could put the bike in without having to somehow wheel it up the stairs. Wash and Harry where making the second trip for his camera bag and guitar case, of course Wash took the burden of the lighter camera bag.

"Are you ready, yet?" asked Inara who was becoming more impatient by the second.

Harry nodded and gestured to himself and Wash, he looked up sensing the approaching of the worst women of this century.

"You know, Inara, he wrote me a song on that" said Dani pointing to Harry and his guitar, "you think he'll ever write one about you."

"I played you a song, I didn't write you one, the only thing your worth is a dirty limerick" sneered Harry.

Dani was now standing next to Harry, pouting, "You really think that little of me, honey. After all we've been through, you choose a stupid mutt over me."

Harry saw red at that, he opened the guitar case and grasped the instrument by its neck, dropping the case with a clatter. Harry swung at the bitch, but was stopped by the sound of a pistol being armed.

"I think you'd better move on, Harry" said the Captain pointing his gun at his former crew member.

"I thought more of you, Captain" said Harry picking up his belongings and storming out of the cargo bay door towards Inara's shuttle.

* * *

"Oh, god" a voice echoed from inside the rubbish skip, "God, where is it? Ugh, it's not here."

"Looking for this?" asked Inara smugly from her and Harry's position atop a rock formation all the while pointing the fabled Lassiter at the dishevelled form of Dani.

"You know Inara, I wonder if it works" mused Harry.

"I was thinking the same think" said Inara, she attempted to fire the weapon, unsuccessfully, "Oh, well, it's still worth a fortune."

"But this one work's fine" said Harry as his pulled his pistol out of his holster and pointed it at Dani.

"Honey, you look horrific" said Inara taking a lot of pleasure in Dani's predicament.

"Yeah, she really does" said Harry as he gave his pistol for Inara to hold and picked up his camera that he had already prepared, "Smile Dani, please, for me."

Blinking from the flash of the camera Dani asked, "What are you two doing here?"

Inara replied while handing Harry back his pistol, "Oh, just our part of the job."

"What part of the job?" asked Dani quickly.

"You know. I put on the big act, storm away in a huff. Then fly off, wait for you to double-cross Mal, beat you to the rendezvous spot and grab the loot before you can get to it. What, you didn't see it coming?" said Inara smugly but with a touch of class that only a companion could pull off.

"And what about you?" Dani asked Harry.

"Oh, yeah. Well I wasn't even a part of the plan until after you shot me, then the Captain just asked me to tag along with Inara here and that's that," replied Harry.

Dani moved to get her pistol that was laying on the side of the skip, Harry fired a single shot sending it spinning off the side out of Dani's reach.

"You know I'm a little disappointed, some of the crew's performances weren't quite as nuanced as they could have been. Thought they might have tipped the fact that we were playing you from the second Mal took you out of that crate" said Inara.

"At least they were cut in on the plan, I was bloody shot" said Harry.

"Call it method acting" replied Inara curtly as she pressed a button on a control remote.

The lid of the skip began closing and Dani screamed, "No, you can't do this."

"Inara, stop. She's right we can't do this" said Harry in voice that sounded like what he was saying pained him.

"Thank you, honey" cooed Dani greatfully.

"Hold this Inara" said Harry.

Harry handed Inara a lightweight colourful disk, Harry withdrew a lighter from his jacket and lit the fuse.

"Go on, chuck it in" instructed Harry.

Once the disk landed in the skip, Harry told Inara, "Now you can close it."

"No, Harry. Don't you dare" screamed Dani her voice getting softer as the lid closed.

"You're not gonna die, you big baby. The authorities will be here in a few hours to dig you out," said Inara.

A thunderous bang reverberated from within the skip, smoke and colourful sparks could be seen coming out of the cracks of the rusted skip.

"She's not gonna die, is she?" asked Inara hesitantly.

"Unfortunately not, she may be a bit deaf though, and it will sure as hell scare the shit out of her" said Harry causing Inara to smirk.

The two of them hopped off the rock formation and headed back to the shuttle, Inara asked Harry, "What was that thing anyway?"

"Firecracker, my friend used to make them" answered Harry, Inara noticed that Harry said "used to" meaning past tense.

Back on the shuttle, Harry asked Inara "Can I send a wave out?"

Inara thought about it for a moment, "You break it, you buy it."

Moving over to the view screen Harry searched his jacket's pockets for a certain cable, finding it Harry attached one end to his camera and the other to view screen as he made his call.

After waiting for about a minute, the call was expected, "Oh it's you," said the recipient gruffly.

"Oh come on Haymer, that's no way to talk to someone who has something you want" said Harry.

Inara jerked her head up at that point thinking that Harry was going to hand back the Lassiter, Harry lifted his hand to signal her to stop.

"Today I don't give a damn what you've got, it won't replace what I had" said Haymer harshly.

"So mean, mate. Trust me your gonna want this," said Harry sending the image of a dishevelled rubbish-covered Dani through to Haymer, "Coordinates are attached."

"Is that… " started Haymer.

"All right got to go, talk real soon" interjected Harry quickly, Harry didn't want Haymer to connect the dots that if Harry knew where his long-lost wife was then Harry most likely had the Lassiter.

"That was a dirty trick," Inara told Harry.

"Do you object?" asked Harry coldly completely dropping the fake attitude of personability which he had used with Haymer.

Harry went to lay down while Inara got the shuttle started.

* * *

"You know, you shouldn't feel bad" said Inara.

Harry was lying down on one of the couches that bordered Inara's shuttle, her statement bought him back to the present.

"Bad, bad about what?" asked Harry moving upright looking at Inara's tuned back as she piloted her shuttle.

"Saffron, I mean Dani, you shouldn't feel bad that she sucked you in, when we first met it was apparent that she had companion training," said Inara not looking at Harry.

"Yeah, I thought so too" mused Harry.

Inara turned to face Harry at this statement, "Wait, you knew that she was manipulating you and you still slept with her."

"We met when we both were trying to steal a bunch of pearls, Inara, it wasn't like I thought she was trustworthy, and when she turned on the charm I didn't see any harm in it, she wasn't manipulating me, even if I let her think that she was," said Harry.

"You know I always knew that her name wasn't Dani, but in my head I still call her that" continued Harry, "bit strange."

Inara rolled her eyes at Harry and said, "Your wonder about what you call her in your head, she tried to kill you."

"Wouldn't be the first woman" respond Harry causing Inara to raise an eyebrow.

"Why are you so against her, Inara? It's not just because he left you all for dead, it's even more personal than that," said Harry now making his way over to the sitting Inara.

"What is it just because she used your craft to manipulate men for her own gain, or is it that she used it on someone special?" asked Harry his head tilted slightly, looking for a crack in Inara's passive expression.

"As you said, Dani has companion training, any man is fair game to her" continued Harry.

"You didn't fall for it, did you" said Inara who was now being towered over by Harry.

"Let's just say I'm special, I've been around you lot long enough to recognise when one of you are putting it on" said Harry not once breaking eye contact with Inara who was becoming nervous under his gaze.

"We, um, I've engaged the auto-pilot docking sequence with Serenity" stammered Inara, she never stammered, "You might want to sit back down, we'll be there in less than half an hour."

Inara turned back towards the console, but Harry didn't sit back down, Harry moved to the back of her chair and crouched slightly so that his breath was on the back of her neck.

"Come on, Inara, play nice" he whispered in her ear.

Inara hit a button on console perhaps a little too roughly, stood up and rounded on Harry, "Play nice, play nice. Where do you get off, Harry. What's your game, why are you even here?"

Inara continued confidently, "You act so cold towards everyone and then the next moment you're all friends, but you still keep me at arm's length. Why is that, Harry? Why do you talk to me like a suitor, but look at me with those cold dead eyes."

"It's because you tried to read me, as soon as I got on that damn ship you thought you had me figured out. Oh I'll just bat my eyelashes and show some cleavage then I'll have him in the palm of my hand" said Harry angrily, "You treated me like I was some wound up kid that would unravel under the gaze of a beautiful woman. You don't know me, Inara. You talk about Dani trying to manipulate me with such contempt, yet every time you talk to me, all of your words are calculated, you are still trying to get inside my head."

"Oh and you haven't been trying to do the same to me. Yes, okay I tried to size you up, but it was you that kept it going" said Inara.

Harry moved closer to Inara making her back up against the wall now in close proximity to Harry, "All I did was give you what you tried to give me, you could've stopped at any time, but I'm a challenge. Men are putty in your hands, but when someone pushes back you can't handle it," said Harry, his body now pushed up against Inara's, "Just face it Inara, sometimes you're not in control."

Inara was breathing rapidly staring into Harry's eyes, he was taller than her so his eyes stared downwards at her nervous form.

"I,… I" tried Inara.

Harry pulled his head back slightly and asked Inara sarcastically, "You're what, Inara?"

Inara lunged at Harry, smashing her lips against his as she ran her hands through the tangled mass that was his hair. Inara pushed Harry's jacket off haphazardly and then busied herself with taking off his shirt. She gasped when she saw his chest and all of his scars, she traced a gruesome one that trailed from just below his heart and down to his muscular abdomen with her fingers.

Harry and Inara were devouring each other in desperation, but suddenly both tumbled onto the floor of the shuttle as it lurched violently each grabbing each other instinctively as they fell, their hands clutching the more 'private' and 'posteriors' parts of each other's bodies.

"Quick, quick, get off" whispered Inara hurriedly as she struggled to disentangle her flowing skirt from underneath Harry.

Harry frowned confused at Inara, "They'll probably be waiting on the other side of that door for the stolen weapon that's worth a fortune, any of that ring of bell to you."

Harry grunted in annoyance as he disentangled himself from Inara, he was appeased a little as he saw her look of frustration at the situation also. Harry tried to find with wrist bandolier as he hastily buttoned his shirt while Inara was trying to smooth out her garb and fix her hair.

As Inara opened the door and greeted the assembled crew, Harry said to himself, "Who ever heard of a companion leaving someone unfulfilled."

* * *

Inara was sitting in her shuttle, alone. She was listening to the chatting crew who were situated in the common area outside the infirmary, the ship was empty enough so their voices reached her ears. It had been a couple of hours since her and Harry had recovered the Lassiter and the crew had subsequently picked up the stark naked Captain from the middle of the Bellerophon desert scape.

Despite herself Inara had been listening to the chatting crew for longer than was proper. Kaylee, Wash, Simon, the Shepherd, Harry and Jayne were settling in for a poker game.

"Should we check on him?" asked the Shepherd, "He went to his bunk for the cards five minutes ago."

"It's probably just taking him a little longer because of the sedative" said Simon as he passed out chips in exchange for the cash that six had handed over.

Inara could tell that Harry was there because she could hear him strumming his guitar, something he did when he was bored.

The strumming abruptly stopped, "Piss off, Wash" said Harry. Wash had just hit Harry over the back of the head.

"Should I ask?" asked Simon.

"No you shouldn't" said Wash.

"Oh come on you big baby, I wasn't even saying the words" said Harry rubbing the back of his head where Wash had struck him.

Kaylee gigged, "Now I've got to know," she said.

"Wash dislikes the song I was playing" explained Harry.

"Is there something wrong with the words?" asked the Shepherd curiously.

"Oh no, Wash likes the song, he just dislikes it when I play it" said Harry.

"'Cause you do it on purpose" said Wash as he nudged Harry with his boot.

"I do not, well maybe a little. Wash says the song reminds him a girl he meet once, and he gets embarrassed when he thinks Zoë might hear, even though she doesn't know what it means to him, he still feels guilty" said Harry with a smile.

Kaylee and Simon laughed at Harry's explanation, "It's not funny" said Wash.

"It is a little, Wash" said the Shepherd, "What's the song, Harry?"

"No, no, no" Wash insisted.

"Oh come on, Wash. Zoë's with the Captain trying the fence that piece of shiny, that won't hear nothin'" grinned Kaylee.

Harry started playing and Wash tried to grab Harry's guitar, but Harry playfully pushed Wash back with his boot to the laughter of Simon, Kaylee and the Shepherd.

Harry began to sing in accompaniment to the acoustic rendition of the song,

" _Lay where you're laying,_

 _Don't make a sound._

 _I know they're watching,_

 _They're watching._

 _All the commotion,_

 _The kiddie like pain._

 _It has people talking,_

 _They're talking._

 _You,_

 _Your sex is on fire._

 _The dark of the alley,_

 _The breaking of day._

 _The head while I'm driving,_

 _I'm driving._

 _The soft lips are open,_

 _Them knuckles are pale._

 _It feels like you're dying,_

 _You're dying._

 _And you,_

 _Your sex is on fire._

 _Consoled,_

 _With what's just transpired._

 _Hot as a fever,_

 _Rattling bones._

 _I could just taste it,_

 _Taste it."_

At this point Harry could see that Inara had left her shuttle and was walking along the catwalk, to the stairs and making her way down to them. Harry watched Inara as he sung.

 _"If it's not forever,_

 _If it's just tonight._

 _Oh, it's still the greatest,_

 _The greatest,_

 _The greatest._

 _And you,_

 _Your sex is on fire._

 _And you,_

 _Your sex is on fire._

 _Consoled,_

 _With what's just transpired._

 _And you,_

 _Your sex is on fire._

 _Consoled,_

 _With what's just transpired."_

As Harry finished the final cords of the song he didn't break eye contact with Inara.

"That there woman in the song might want to go see a doctor" grunted Jayne as he brushed past Inara who was leaning up against the wall.

"I don't believe the song is about disease, Jayne" said the Shepherd.

"It's a love song" said Kaylee sweetly.

"I don't think it's a love song, Kaylee" said Harry, but maybe the acoustic arrangement of the Kings of Leon song changed the meaning somehow.

"Is it about someone, or is it just to bother Wash?" asked Simon as he shuffled the cards Jayne had handed him.

"I'd played it before I met Wash" replied Harry as he counted his chips.

"That don't answer the question" said Jayne, an oddly observant remark made from a man still not fully awake from Simon's sedative, "It got Inara all hot and bothered, didn't it."

At Jayne's statement Inara pushed Jayne's head forward causing his howl in pain from his injury.

"Oh, don't worry Inara, Harry didn't write the song about you," said Wash, Harry didn't correct them that the songs he played weren't his, he thought that the crew would take notice of some many songs from people they haven't ever heard off, in any sorts Harry figured that because he was the only person with Earth-That-Was music, that he owned them in a way and that he should play them, but that might have just been an excuse to show off.

"Thank you, Wash" said Inara kindly.

"Yep, he wrote it about River" said Wash leaning back in his chair.

Simon chocked on his water and Kaylee thumped him on the back, "What?" he exclaimed.

"Don't start that shit again, Wash" said Harry as he spied a look of jealousy on Inara's face, a look of anger on Simon's and amusement on the Shepherd's and Kaylee's.

"Then don't play that gorram song again" said Wash.

"But it's so much fun watching you squirm when you hear Zoë coming up to the bridge" said Harry.

"How 'bout we play some ruttin' cards" grunted an impatient Jayne.

"You guys go ahead, I've got to go to the bathroom" said Harry as he stood up.

"But we're just startin'" whined Jayne.

"And if you hadn't taken your sweet time getting the cards, I wouldn't need to go now, would I" explained Harry as he navigated the sea of the crew's legs that were in front of him.

"I count my chips now, Wash, so don't try it" said Harry stepping over Jayne's outstretched legs.

"Who me?" asked Wash in a mock offended tone as he placed Harry's chips back in his pile to the laughter of the others.

Climbing the stairs quickly trying to get to his bunk Harry hadn't noticed that Inara was following him until she announced herself.

"Harry?" she asked nervously, but somehow also confidently.

"Yeah, Inara" said Harry as he used his boot to open the hatch.

"I think it would be appropriate if we talked" stated Inara.

"Uh, yeah, okay, but I've got to go to the bathroom somewhat urgently" said Harry climbing down the diagonally warped ladder.

Harry started to pee but jumped as he heard to distinct clicking of high heel shoes, "Christ Inara, what the hell, I said we'd talk but I didn't mean right now."

"I thinks it's important" said Inara sitting on top of a chest of draws.

"Can't it wait" said a still peeing Harry who really didn't want to have this conversation at the moment.

"No" said Inara simply.

Doing up his fly and pushing to the toilet with his boot, Harry asked, "Fine, what do you want to talk about?"

Inara gave Harry a look, "What do you think?"

"What Inara, it wasn't like anything real happened, that last part was by accident and was the closest with got to anything real, well anything significantly measurable" said Harry coolly.

"And what about before that?" asked Inara, most women would be uncomfortable in this situation but Harry could tell that Inara wasn't like that.

"You tell me, if I remember correctly it was you who kissed me" said Harry now washing his hands in the sink.

"I don't remember you objecting to that or anything else the followed" Inara rebutted.

"I still don't know what you want me to say, it was just sex Inara, in fact it was less than that, we didn't even get that far" said Harry.

"Oh" said Inara without expression.

"You understand that?" asked Harry who had begun to question Inara's feelings.

"Yeah, yeah, of course" she said not quite looking at Harry.

"Not that what we did wasn't great or anything, but it was probably for the best" said Harry while lowering himself into a sitting position on his bed.

Inara raised an eyebrow at Harry, "You know, you and the Captain and all."

Inara stood up at that point, "What do you mean, me and Mal" she said.

"You're infatuated with the Captain" explained Harry nonchalantly.

"I am not,… we never… well, what about you and River" said Inara.

"What do you mean? The kid who alternates between being my friend and my would-be murderer" laughed Harry, perhaps a little too loud to seem natural.

"She's not a kid, she's eighteen now" said Inara still trying to deflect the attention away from herself.

"Please, don't say that" asked Harry causing Inara to tilt her head quizzically at him with a knowing smile.

"Me with a person on the ship, it wouldn't work" said Harry.

"Wash and Zoë" began Inara.

"Are in a committed marriage" interrupted Harry.

"And you wouldn't… " said Inara.

"Get married, no" said Harry bluntly.

"Pffft, you're young, or course you'd say that" countered Inara.

"How old do you think I am" asked Harry.

Inara looked uncomfortable at this question, "Twenty-six, twenty-seven," guessed Inara.

"I'm older than I look" said Harry angrily, "so don't think you can attribute my attitude to my age."

"I see you looking at her, Harry" said Inara, "You can't say that I'm imagining that."

"What is it with you, Inara?" asked Harry, "Oh, so, you saw me looking at River, when was that? When you weren't looking at the Captain. Sex is sex, Inara. I have to keep it that way, people die around me Inara. Just before you asked why I'm cold, that's why Inara," said Harry standing up, his raised voice awoke Pup who had been sleeping in the corner.

"So you and I were what? A lapse" said Inara getting angry at Harry.

"We didn't though" said Harry.

"Oh, you know we would've if we hadn't docked when we did" said Inara.

Harry didn't respond.

"What you thought because I was a companion that I wouldn't have trouble separating it, that's it, isn't it" said Inara, "That's why you hung around with the companions when you were doing the manual, not chance of either one of you getting feelings."

"I… " began Harry.

"Oh, no Harry I've hit the nail on the head haven't I, you want River, but you're scared so you went after me, the safe option" said Inara, "Big bad criminal Harry, is just a scared little go neong yung duh."

"Oh, why don't you just go and fuck off, Inara" said Harry, "What do you want me to say? That I like her, that I thinks she's sexy, that I don't care about her age, that I want her, it doesn't matter Inara, so you can just go back to fantasising about a version of the Captain that doesn't exist and we can forget about whatever happened and whatever nearly happen between us," Harry punctuated his rant by throwing his hunting knife at his wooden headboard in anger.

Inara felt a twinge of guilt seeing that how Harry had reacted, "You know, she talks about you" said Inara, "River, I mean. Who better than a companion to talk to about men."

Inara moved towards Harry's bed and sat down, "Some of it is just rambling that you're locked up and she wants to see. But she likes you, she asked how she could get you to notice her more. I guess she was looking at you, and you were looking at her, just not at the same time."

Harry sat down next to Inara on the bed, "What did you tell her?"

"Not to waste her time on you, of course" joked Inara nudging Harry with her knee, "I told her to talk to you and ask you questions, but she just got frustrated when you evaded them, I also told her that if still weren't paying her attention and she felt she was completely desperate than perhaps she should pass you by wearing some short skirted dresses with low cut busts."

Harry nudged Inara with his knee, "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't noticed that."

Inara smiled at Harry and said, "And you said you didn't like it when companions got inside your head."

"I think that would apply to all men, not just me, bit of a poor example of companion skills" said Harry.

"It worked didn't it" said Inara.

"Yes, you successfully triggered a natural male response, well done" said Harry, "and I'd taken notice of her before that, her wardrobe just… enhanced it."

"Sure it did" said Inara standing up and moving towards the exit, "I see the way you look at each other, you should give it a chance."

"It won't work, anyone I get… close to eventually dies," said Harry not meeting her eyes.

"Should I be worried" asked Inara jokingly.

"You would, if we hadn't been interrupted, with what we did I'd just watch out for cuts and bruises, nothing major" Harry joked.

Inara lifted the skirt of her gown as she prepared to climb the ladder to leave the bunk, "You know Harry, I'm not the only one who has to watch their backs, River said that she was going to get you when you weren't expecting it."

Harry looked a little frightened at that statement, but he may have been putting it on, "Get me in a womanly sense or in a sense as in with a knife?" asked Harry.

Inara walked over to Harry and said, "I guess you'll just have to wait and see."

As Inara walked away swaying her hips seductively Harry couldn't resist, "So now that's talked to death, are we or are we not telling the Captain that his ambassador has the hots for him."

Turning around Inara said, "Hypothetically, if there was any truth to that I think the answer would be no."

Harry smiled, "Hypothetically, of course."

"Exactly" said Inara.

"Well if you ever get tired of waiting for the Captain to see what's under his nose, we could finish what we started" said Harry in sarcastically seductive voice.

"But of course that's a hypothetical" said Inara.

"Of course, just a hypothetical" nodded Harry.

Inara climbed the ladder and walked towards the bridge to check in with the Captain and Zoë, she heard Harry make his way back down to the infirmary adjacent common area. She hadn't expected their conversation to go that way, she was glad that Harry and herself weren't trying to antagonise each other anymore, who knew that a little lip contact and accidently groping was the key to establishing a friendship.

Inara felt uneasy that she found herself more attracted to Harry after she confirmed that he wanted to be someone else more, of course Inara would never tell Harry that, but a little bit of her wished that Harry wanted her over River. After all what did River have that Inara didn't, sure she was younger and more energetic, no, no, it was best not to let herself get carried away with that train of thought.

The loud yell from down in the common area caused Inara to stop, "Where the hell are my chips?" The exclamation forced a chuckle from Inara, she didn't notice that River was crouching hidden in the dark corner near the hatch of Harry's bunk.

* * *

River lay in her bed thinking. She liked thinking, she was good at it. In her thoughts she was smart, logical and stable, it was only when she tried to voice her thoughts or put her thoughts into action when it got all muddled up. Something stopped her thoughts from becoming a reality, restricted her, made her seem mad. She wasn't mad, just damaged.

River knew what had happened to her, what the Alliance had done to her, she remembered it all. River remembered how they had seemed interested in her not only for her abnormal intelligence, but her intuitiveness. That doctors had tested her, made her guess things that she couldn't see, they flooded her system with drugs, she remembered that they had seemed proud when she said something that she shouldn't have known, but they didn't like it when she didn't know. The doctors electrocuted her, cut into her brain and spine, they showed her images that frightened her and they had put a towel over her head and tried to drown her, they said they were trying to make her better. River knew that they were trying to break her, trying to trigger something in her.

She had asked again and again to see her brother, they had said that once she had reached her full potential than they would talk about it. The doctors called her their top student, the praised her when she "read" as they put it, but one time they didn't. A few months before she had been rescued by Simon, they had walked her into a different room, the room was circular and surrounded by mirrors with a steel desk in the middle, River could feel people on the other side of the mirrors, but she couldn't see them. The doctor asked River the usual questions, but occasionally the doctor would press his ear and listen to instructions coming from the other end. When River had asked they doctor why he had voices in his ear, the doctor had said that they had spectators today and that if she did good, they would talk about her seeing Simon.

"Have you read anything lately, River?" the doctor had asked.

"I don't read, I feel and hear even if I'm blind" said River, she had tried to tell the doctor that she could read the spectators, but the words didn't come out right.

"Okay, have you felt or heard anything lately, like how you've done before" probed the doctor.

"I feel the doctors" said River struggling to keep her eyes in focus.

"And what doctors are those, River?" asked the doctor as he wrote on his notepad.

"The ones who show me the pictures. But they're not pictures, they're orders and movements, movements of death and destruction, orders of pain and misery. The pictures stick in my skull and the doctors make me focus on them and they make me move, make me follow the order. When I do it right, I hear the doctors, they're so loud, so proud of themselves, they say they're proud of me, but they're so loud that I can hear them congratulating themselves. So loud, they feel so loud, too loud, too much noise, they won't stop, they're so happy, but they want me to do it again and again, too many times, less marks on a clock the more I do it, the more I do it, the louder they get," ranted River clutching the sides of her head.

"Good, River, good. I'll see what I can do about the doctors… quietening down. After all you do such good work with them, your brain takes to the knowledge and performs them with such grace" said the doctor, he was obviously trying to sell River's progress to the spectators, "You respond to the triggers quickly and your defensive skills are unparalleled to any of our other students."

"I'm trying and trying, I hear as often as I can, I'm getting better at it, better than all the others, I want to see Simon, you said if I did it good than I'd see him," whispered River unnecessarily.

"Yes, yes, River, of course. You keep getting better and we'll see about your brother" said the doctor as he collected his papers and made to leave the room.

"I am better, I am better, better than before, I can hear them better now, clearer now. I did all the pictures and listened to their orders, I did it better, much better, better than before. I want to see Simon, I'm better now, so I get to see him" said River quickly sounding half mad trying to get the doctor to let her see her brother.

"Yes, River, I know you've improved, but I think we can do better, I think we can extended your abilities, then, perhaps, maybe you can see your brother" drawled the doctor examining the time on his watch.

River saw the doctor turn to leave, desperately she exclaimed, "I can hear them, better than before, I hear them now."

Excitedly the doctor sat back down at the table, "Hear who, River? Who can you read?" he said scribbling notes.

River raised a shaking hand and pointed at the mirrored wall, "I can hear them, the ones who hide from us, the ones hidden in my reflection, the ones in your ear" she said nervously.

The doctor was writing faster by the second, "And what do they say River?" he asked.

River pointed a different spot on the mirrors, "He doesn't like it, doesn't understand. Doesn't trust something he can't understand, he wants it but he can't trust it."

"Good, River, good, what else?" said the doctor.

River pointed to another spot on the mirrors, "That one doesn't give anything, his brain is looking somewhere else, not here."

The doctor clutched his ear as voices erupted from the device, the people on the other end needed River to convince the spectators, to show more, convince them all.

"Can you hear another, River?" asked the Doctor.

"I hear that one" said River pointing to another spot on the mirrors.

"And what do you hear" asked the doctor observing River intently.

"Simon" she demanded.

"Yes, yes, River, after this, we'll see about your brother" lied the doctor waving her on.

"That one isn't giving anything either" said River.

"Like the second one?" asked the doctor.

"Yes, his head is too busy for us, he worries about the other world, worries about the PAX and the secret, he worries that they'll know, that they'll all know" said River her eyes shut concentrating hard.

The doctor yelped in pain and dug the earpiece out which had many voices yelling, men entered the room pointing guns at River.

"Don't hurt her" pleaded the doctor.

The guards dragged River out by her hair and locked her in her room. She shouted and screamed at people who weren't listening anymore.

River's doctors changed then, the old ones didn't teach her anymore except for her main one, all the others had been replaced. River knew that she had read something she shouldn't have, the doctors made her repeat what she had read and then they would hurt her, trying to destroy the thought, trying to destroy the secret. The doctors had gotten rougher after that, they demanded more of her, and no longer gave her praise for reading or following the triggers that made her attack and kill.

River tried not to think about her time at the Academy, but sometimes she drifted there. Simon reminded her of them, not that he meant to, whenever he would tell River to take a new medicine she would flash back to the Academy, at least Simon asked River, the doctors forced her.

River could tell that the medicine wasn't working, not matter how many times Simon tried, she still felt it all, read everything and found herself lost in the triggers. Not matter how hard she tried, the triggers still had a hold on her, while she choose when or when not to read, the triggers came when she least expected it. River hated the triggers, she hated losing control of her body, hated hurting her friends.

Once she had been trying Inara's advice, she had started wearing sundresses with shorter skirts and more cleavage, trying to get Harry's attention. Every time herself and Kaylee ran past the boys who were playing poker she could see Harry watching her, but on her last rotation she felt Harry watch her differently, hungrily. River tried to read Harry, but he wouldn't let her and she lost it, the triggers took over and she attacked him. All in all, it didn't go very well for her, Harry had made her knock herself out on the metal steps of the stairs.

Harry, he was special. He was the one person that she couldn't read, it frustrated her, drove her towards him. She had become so accustomed to being able to read everyone that when someone wouldn't let her in, that meant he was all the more special. River could only ever read the surface of Harry, his mood or his attitude, but not his thoughts like she could with others. River could also tell that Harry had too much knowledge in his head, being his age he shouldn't be able to know so much. This made River fell conflicted, she wanted to see inside Harry's head so badly, but the more she wanted it, the more she found her attraction for him strengthen, that was why she had approached Inara in the first place, unfortunately River had read Inara and discovered that she felt something similar for Harry, but also for the Captain.

River had tried talking to Harry, most of the time she was fine, but sometimes he set her off. She would watch him joke with Wash, play his guitar, clean his weapons, fiddle with his motorbike and play with his dog, but sometimes when they talked and she asked him questions, he would set off her triggers when he would dodge her questions. She had tried to talk to him, not read him, and he still set her off.

River lay in her bed thinking about Harry, she knew she liked him, and that he liked her to some extent, but her feelings were mixed together with the desire to read him fully. The only time she had been able to read him was when she had knocked him unconscious with the gas when he had first come aboard. But at that point River hadn't felt the need to read him, she didn't know then that she wouldn't have the opportunity again. River turned that thought over in her head, she wondered if she would be able to read Harry if his mind was at ease, like when he was asleep.

That thought stuck in her mind, urging her to test her theory. Unable to think of anything else River rose from her bed, she crept silently down the corridor, this wasn't hard for her, she had always been lightfooted. River shivered feeling the cold steel of the stairs against her bare feet, not making a sound River made her way to Harry's bunk, feeling that if Harry's bunk hatch squeaked she would lose her chance. River eased the hatch open, like her it didn't make a sound, she guessed Harry had oiled it when he warped the ladder. River forwent the ladder and dropped down into the bunk landing softly near the bed.

River could see that Harry was fast asleep, but not sleeping restfully. Harry was moaning and whimpering in his sleep, muttering names that River didn't recognise. River moved forward, but the floor creaked as she moved. Pup raised his head at the sound, not wanting Harry to wake River moved to the dog and bought her forehead to its, she willed it to go back to sleep, convincing the dog that sleeping was the right course of action at this moment. The dog lowered its head and went back to sleep, Harry jerked in his sleep moaning louder, he turned onto his back, his head thrashing. River climbed on the bed trying to not wake Harry, she straddled him and watched his movements for a moment.

River tried to read Harry, but even asleep he was strong. She shut her eyes in concentration, she tried to look for an opening in Harry's mind. As Harry said something in his sleep, River discovered an opening. River tried to take advantage of the lapse in Harry's mind, but felt it closing fast. River desperately searched his mind as the opening began to close, suddenly she felt herself being tugged and pulled by a greater force than she.

River was falling in darkness, falling through Harry's mind. She searched for a light in the black scape, she spotted one in the distance and ran towards it. She saw Harry, he was laughing, he was sitting in a small cabin laughing with a very large man. Suddenly the scene shifted, Harry was a teenager, he was riding on the back of a horse, but it wasn't a horse, it had wings and a beak, and he wasn't riding it, he was flying. River was in Harry's dream, she was seeing what he was.

The scene shifted to Harry giving the same creature to a man dressed in rags. The man changed appearance, he now looked cleaner and healthy. River could feel the love Harry felt for this man, he was Harry's friend, his mentor, his brother and more. Suddenly Harry's feelings of love changed to feelings of lose. The man faded before Harry's eyes and was replace by a dozen people, but they weren't people, their faces were grey and gaunt, their clothes torn and bloody. In unison they raised their hands towards Harry, Harry tried to back away but tripped. The people were descending on Harry tearing him limb from limb all shouting at him.

"It's your fault Harry" they shouted, "you killed us, we followed you and you killed us. It's your fault we're dead, if we hadn't met you we would've been better off."

River couldn't see Harry anymore as the others had crowded him, "You didn't even care that we were gone, you survived and you didn't care, we loved you and you killed us, Harry."

Harry screamed in pain as they ripped apart his body, he shouted their names and asked for forgiveness.

"Forgiveness, forgiveness," they shouted, "you don't deserve forgiveness, you killed us and deserve to be damned to hell, Potter."

Harry screamed in pain as they tore open his chest, and the scene changed. Harry was unharmed and the others were gone. They stood in a stone courtyard, in a flash a man appeared in front of Harry. River thought it was a man, maybe, the man's skin was chalk white and his fingers were as spindly as spider's legs. The man opened his eyes, scarlet eyes filled with hate.

"Potter, we meet again" the man hissed.

Harry felt around his wrist and legs for his weapons and the man laughed, "You think you can harm Lord Voldemort with these toys" he said as he held Harry's weapons in his hands.

Voldemort tossed Harry's weapons away and held the hunting knife to his eye, "Interesting, you hide yourself from others. Pathetic, if you hid Harry Potter away, than who is there to stop me."

"I already did" said Harry weakly.

"Oh you think so, do you?" laughed Voldemort cruelly.

Voldemort launched himself at Harry brandishing Harry's knife, Voldemort sunk the blade into Harry's heart, but Harry didn't die.

"No wonder all your friends died around you. You're weak Potter, a half-blood boy who got lucky, you only killed me because of your friends help. Where are they now Potter?" asked Voldemort twisting the knife in Harry's heart and smiling, "That's right, they're all gone. Did you feel smart Potter, did you feel clever. Master of Death, you must've been so proud, until you realised that everyone you loved would leave you behind."

Voldemort withdraw the blade from Harry's heart laughing at Harry's pain, he held the blade to Harry's throat.

River jumped as a disembodied voice sounded throughout the dream, "It's just a dream, Harry. It's just a dream."

Voldemort laughed, "Your mother, Potter. It seems that she is only thing that saves you from me."

The voice spoke again, "It's just a dream, Harry. It's just a dream, think of something happy, dream of something good, dream of anything else, Harry."

Voldemort screamed as he disappeared into nothingness.

The scene changed rapidly, they changed so fast that River didn't have time to dissect the scenes fully.

Harry was playing with a small child whose hair was changing colours as he laughed.

Harry was stroking a snowy white owl and talking to it softly.

Harry was laughing with two others, a redheaded boy and a bushy haired girl.

Harry was playing his guitar for Wash watching him try to stop Harry playing as Zoë entered the bridge.

Harry was kissing a redheaded girl as other teenagers cheered.

Harry was talking with a man in worn and patched clothes as they ate chocolate.

Harry was walking along a crowded market street with the large man.

Harry was watching children playing on a water slide in a forest river.

Harry and a stunningly beautiful silver headed girl were having passionate sex.

Harry was filming a small reptilian creature emerging from an egg.

Harry was flying high above the ground smiling at a pretty Asian girl before reaching out of a small flying golden ball.

Harry was sitting with Inara on a rock.

Harry was handing over a sack of coins to two redheaded boys.

Harry was eating at a long wooden table surrounded by other children while laughing and chatting with the redheaded boy and the bushy haired girl.

Harry was making out with a naked Indian girl as she leant backwards onto an electrical console.

Harry was walking along a train station while a large shaggy haired dog snapped at birds.

Harry was talking to a transparent man in a forest.

Harry was holding a fallen Inara as she clung to his shoulders and he her ass.

Harry was talking to a younger Wash while cradling a small dog.

Harry was staring at a large cake with the numbers "17" written on it surrounded by friends.

Harry was talking to River in the bridge of Serenity while he lightly strummed his guitar. This scene was different, the colour was clearer and the scene hadn't rapidly shifted like the others had. It seemed that in his dream-state Harry was stuck on this thought. The scene was unlike the others, River could tell that the others had been memories but this one wasn't, it had started as a memory but had diverted into a dream. River remembered how it had played out in reality, as they laughed and talked she had suddenly begun to attack Harry, but in the dream she didn't.

River and Harry were still talking, River felt Harry's mind drift slightly but it soon came back into focus. In the dream, Harry stood up and walked over to River, he pulled her to her feet and kissed her passionately.

The real River gasped at the sight and suddenly the scene faded. River was being pulled back to reality, a reality where her movements inside the dream had made her real body move. River looked down at Harry's sleeping body, only he wasn't sleeping anymore.

Harry began to stir, he had felt something move near him and it had woken him up. Harry shifted his position and he felt something on top of his body, Harry blinked clearing his vision expecting to see a stirring dog in his bed, he didn't.

River was straddling Harry, she was wearing a long sleeved sweater, and was sweating rapidly. As Harry took in her bare legs and her scared expression, his mind began to whir.

"Did you, I mean, did you see" asked Harry tentatively.

River was scared, but she nodded. Harry yelled and she leapt from his bed cowering under his presence.

"What did you see, River?" asked Harry his voice shaking, he was now standing. He was wearing his normal sleeping attire, trousers with undone belt, socks and shoes and even though his weapons were resting on his bedside table, he still looked dangerous.

"What did you see, River?" yelled Harry, he hadn't noticed that his bunk hatch was open and voice was probably traveling.

River jumped at the rage in his voice, "I saw, I saw you and your friends, there was a redheaded girl, blonde girl, Asian, and an Indian girl. I saw you with your teacher and then the long dark haired man. I saw you and Inara, and then you and Inara together" squeaked River, surprisingly she wasn't speaking in riddles or disjointed sentences, Harry was getting angrier by the second, "I saw you… you and me... you and me together. I saw the dead bodies hurting you and… and… the red-eyed man torture you."

Harry moved closer to the scared River, the light from the hatch illuminated the scars on his body, "You saw it all then?" seethed Harry.

River nodded frightened at the way Harry was acting.

"You looked in my head and you saw everything" said Harry menacingly.

River nodded, Harry grabbed his hunting knife off his dresser and placed it against River's throat.

"How dare you" whispered Harry threateningly.

Harry abandoned any thoughts of calm and understanding and yelled, "Those were mine, my memories, my thoughts," Harry began thumping the wall with his free hand as held the knife to the quivering form of River who seemed to scared to bring herself to attack him, "You had no right," he yelled, Harry was so consumed by his rage that he didn't hear the sound of approaching feet.

"They weren't for you, those are… those are… you can't" Harry yelled his knife not moving, "They're all I had left and you took them, you can't do that. You can't just look wherever you want because feel you have the fucking right. It's my pain, my memory and you had no right to see it."

"My head is my property, you don't own it just because can see into others" said Harry his voice getting louder, "You don't get to see, they're mine, not yours, you had no right, you had no right, they were mine. You shouldn't have seen it, they were private, they were mine."

Harry's head jerked up as he heard someone rushing down his ladder, Jayne came into view. Jayne saw Harry holding his knife to River's throat and pulled his gun. Knowing that he had no other choice than to leg it, Harry removed his knife from River's throat and threw it at Jayne's shoulder making him fall back against the impaled shoulder howling in pain.

"You shouldn't have," muttered Harry as he rushed around the bunk, putting a shirt and his jacket on while also collecting his weapons.

Harry could hear yells from the crew above wanting to know what was happening, Harry whistled and Pup ran ahead of Harry up the ladder. Harry pulled his knife out of Jayne as Jayne cursed Harry loudly. Harry emerged from the bunk hatch and saw the Captain running towards the commotion.

"What going on, Harry?" asked the Captain.

Harry tried to move backwards, but the Captain grasped his shoulders, "What's wrong?" the Captain asked.

The Captain looked down into Harry's bunk hatch and saw a bleeding Jayne and a shaking River slumped against the wall. While the Captain was distracted Harry slipped out of his grip and ran down the hallway. Harry didn't answer the questions of Wash, Zoë and Kaylee as he passed them in the hallway, they all took notice that Harry knife was covered in blood and that the Captain was trying to lift a wounded Jayne out of Harry's bunk, but when they looked back at Harry he had already gone.

"What's going on, sir?" asked Zoë as she armed herself thinking there were intruders on Serenity, the Captain just shook his head.

"We heard the yelling, we thought someone was in trouble" said Wash who was hurriedly putting on a shirt.

"Harry's gone nuts" said Jayne, the Captain had placed Jayne against the wall and was now helping a scared looking River out of the hatch.

"I heard the yell and I saw that Harry's hatch was open, I went down and Harry had his knife to River throat, when he saw me and nailed me with it," said Jayne unnecessarily gesturing to his bleeding shoulder.

"No, no, Harry wouldn't do that" said Wash.

"He won't get far" called Zoë ignoring her husband as he ran down the hallway.

Harry had just secured his belongings onto his bike and was starting it when he heard the sound of gun being armed.

"What's going on, Harry?" asked Zoë while she aimed rifle at Harry's turned back.

Harry kicked the bike into gear and pushed the button to open the cargo bay door. A shot went over Harry's head and hit the dirt of the ground outside, a warning shot. Harry turned around and aimed his pistol at Zoë, Wash suddenly appeared and forcibly lowered his wife's weapon.

"Harry?" Wash asked his friend uncertainly.

Harry saw the Captain emerge holding River by his side, the Captain didn't say anything but he saw that Harry had his weapon raised, the Captain stepped in front of River protectively. Harry was about to lower his pistol when Jayne emerged with his Callahan Full-Bore Auto-Lock gun and one-handily shot at Harry, he missed most likely because he couldn't use his other arm. As Jayne went to fire a second shot Harry launched one the throwing knives that had originally belonged to Zoë at Jayne, the large weapon clattered to the ground as Jayne howled in pain with Harry's knife lodged in his hand.

Inara, Simon, Kaylee and the Shepherd had come out and with the rest of the crew were staring at Harry, they saw Harry look down at his chest and whisper something to himself, suddenly bursts of flame's erupted from Harry's position and the crew were forced to shield their eyes.

The flames quickly distinguished themselves, but the crew was too late, Harry, the bike and the dog had disappeared out onto the moon's soil leaving behind a single wheeled trail and a continuing set of dog paw prints.

Harry didn't look back, he sent a spell behind him that would erase his tracks, but would just look like a dust storm to the crew.

As Harry rode dangerously fast away from the ship with Pup sprinting beside him, he muttered to himself, "She, she, she shouldn't have done, all I had left, my thoughts are mine not hers, not hers, not hers."

Risking a glance back at Serenity which was fading quickly into the darkness, Harry muttered, "Too far gone, too far gone, can't go back, too far gone."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author responses to reviews of the eighth chapter of** ** _Immortality in the Verse_** **and reviews posted on any and all chapters of** ** _Immortality in the Verse_** **since the release of the eighth chapter on either this site, Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **"** **mareknowakowski":**

Harry behaves like he was barely after killing Voldemort. PTSD for 500 years?

 **Author Response:**

 _Harry behaves like what?_

 **"** **Prince Sheogorath":**

Awesome chapter. I really hope that Harry doesn't go back to serenity after this fiasco, that would be too unreal and I also wanted to ask if Harry saved the house-elves?

 **Author Response:**

 _Thanks for the review, but I already answered that question, see previous author responses._

 **"** **Thundramon":**

So River infected Harry with her insanity? His muttering rambling at the end seems to indicate that.

I wonder why the firefly team all come down so hard on Harry so much.

Zoe is pissed with him for what? His close relationship with Wash and his abandonment of Mal

River broke into his mind and invaded his privacy yet they all shot at him?

Inara is trying to manipulate him because he is the only man she can't manipulate?

This is really some sad shit bro! I hope things get better for Harry soon.

 **Author Response:**

 _River didn't infect Harry with her insanity, he was just extremely shaken by what she did._

 _Zoë isn't pissed with Harry, it is just hard for her to see Wash be so close with someone that isn't her, she probably really respects Harry for what he did when the others were kidnapped, but Harry obviously has a lot of secrets and Zoë probably would have a hard time trusting Harry because he isn't fully honest._

 _Can you blame the crew for reacting the way they did, they don't know River is a reader yet. All they knew was that Harry attacked River and Jayne._

 _Also, Inara isn't trying to manipulate Harry because he is the only man she can't manipulate. It's more like Harry is one of the rare people who challenges her and that makes her more determined to find out what makes Harry tick._

 _The way you phrased your review does make my story sound like really sad shit, I hope everyone else didn't see it that way but I enjoyed reading your view on it. Thanks for the review._

 **"** **Rangle":**

So, instead of an aged, wise, immortal being; we get an immature, depressed, and angst filled Harry. It's indeed quite sad but the story plot has to be established!

 **"** **Rangle":**

Why is it on most western literature authors tend to portray normal human mentality to immortality? This is specially true to main characters that attained immortality. It's like ancient protagonists can not achieve any kind of wisdom after living such a long life. It's like they have to follow the same downtrodden trope over and over. Side characters immortals don't have the same formulaic failings.

Oh well, I have to get that out of my chest. It's sometimes boggles me that I encountered a lot of stupidity and immaturity in immortal ancient protagonists. I'm not talking about power here. I'm mostly talking about their mentality and personality.

Anyway, I've enjoyed your story plot so far. Sorry, if I sound a bit negative in the review.

 **"** **Rangle":**

Are you going to be like other countless authors that's going to treat the mind rape thing as trivial? I'm not holding my breath here because I have such a low expectation regarding this issue. It seems like most authors don't value the sanctity of the mind. To them privacy of thoughts is just a wily nily concept.

 **Author Response:**

 _Did you ever think that my protagonist might be a wise and immortal being but chooses to indulge an attitude that reflects more about himself than what he actually projects to the verse._

 _Harry might act the age that he looks because being who he truly is, more than 500 years old actually isn't a great thing, during his dreams Harry is still affected by things that happened when he was a teenager because it was such a big impact on his life. Maybe Harry acts like a normal person because he actually can't face his immortality. It isn't that he is either immature or wise, my protagonist is more complex than a black or white labelling._

 _I am happy to reply to people voicing their opinions of things they don't like about my story but the way your review is written is extremely impolite because by the way you criticize the elements of my story, you were criticizing the person who wrote it. You need to reconsider you wording. Frankly, mate, whatever your intention with your review was it just came off as extremely rude._

 **"** **cdog21":**

I'm seriously bummed that Harry wants River more than Inara. I mean I loved the chapter overall and the history with Harry and Saffron, but I'm still sad about the loss of permanent Hanara.

Also, the citrusy offerings you provided were very hot.

 **Author Response:**

 _Thanks for the review. Hanara, I like that, I hadn't heard it before._

 **"** **noshadowone":**

wow harry is such a little bitch, he's acting like a child not the 500 immortal that he is why is he dealing with these people when they will be dead soon. you have shown that he doesn't even care about his own people but all of sudden he is he just rolls over and lets people walk over him. Plus having him still have nightmares about voldemort when he only had to really deal with him for like 1 percent of his life if that is the case than voldemort definitely made harry his bitch since he can still terrorize him from beyond the grave, and that he has these dreams of people blaming him for there deaths he needs to get over it he has hard plenty of time o learn to deal with his problems, if not than he a whiny little loser

 **Author Response:**

 _The dream showed what Harry felt subconsciously, it doesn't plague him every second of every day. It is just that Harry is at his most vulnerable when asleep and Voldemort and his friends whom he outlived will always affect him._

 _Also, Harry doesn't act like a child, he acts like Harry, or at least the version of Harry within the story._

 **"** **Wolf85":**

Great story so far. Here are a few critiques on the story both good and bad.

\- I have to admit that the whole master of death thing made me a bit weary going in. I usually avoid super powered/dark Harry stories like the plague because most writers can't pull it off without making Harry too powerful and all knowing. You have given him enough vulnerabilities and flaws to balance it out.

\- Some people have complained about the info-dump nature of the first 4 chapters. I will admit to being slightly annoyed by it. That wasn't because i wasn't enjoying what i was reading, but because i knew that the style of writing would change once the Firefly crew entered the story (more dialog and slower pace) and that meant i had to invest an hour of my time reading before i got to see if i was going to like the story.

Looking back on it now i am glad you had those chapter in there. They bridge the gap between the Harry we know and the Harry of your story and they give Harry depth and nuances that would not have come across as sincere had we just started the story with Harry already in the present day time in the Firefly universe.

-One of the few criticisms i will make is that it's kind of annoying that every female he interacts with other than Zoe either wants to bone him or is at least flustered by him. I get that he is wise beyond his years and mysterious, it did take me out of the story a bit.

\- I will also say that while the sex stuff isn't gratuitous at this point, i would be cautious about how far you go with it once you get further into the story. While FFN has gotten better about not just deleting stories because they have descriptive sex in them they absolutely will if they feel it's done to a level that brings the story to an NC rating (basically porn with a plot). Like i said, you're not in any danger at the moment. Just something to look out for in the future. Don't want to see a good story like this canned for such a stupid reason.

\- I do like the love triangle between Harry, Inara, and River. Please no threesome though.

All in all it's a great story so far and i really hope you see it through to completion. As you have said there are some great Harry Potter/Firefly fics on here that have just been abandoned. Keep writing and i'll keep reading and reviewing.

 **"** **Wolf85":**

One final bit of praise that i forgot to add. Couldn't put it in Ch 8 so i'll just put it here.

\- You've done a really good job incorporating the stories from the show into your story without making them just a written account of the the show only this time with Harry Potter. Very nicely done and i can't wait to see where you take the story once you pass the show/movie up.

Do you plan to go into the plot of the movie or are going to go in a different direction?

 **Author Response:**

 _Thank you for your review. The critiques you gave me were quite insightful and helpful rather than a half-baked negative review._

 _About the females in the story, Harry doesn't have sexual tension with all of them, he has female friends that are shown in future chapters, but at this point in the story I can see what you mean._

 _Thank you for giving me the advice of the sexual nature of the story and how it might get deleted. If I have anything hot and heavy I will post that particular bit on Archive of Our Own or Harry Potter FanFic Archive with a banner telling the readers that if they want to see said part of the story they can go there._

 _Also the film will play a part in the rest of the story._

 **"** **darkdannyb":**

Next chapter please, I'm loving this story too any are either two short or get abbandonded please keep going. Are you gonna play on the inara aspect maybe have river go into depression and inara gets a call from the companions and they go to help (like in the episode) only to find harry already their defending them. I'm really enjpying it seems not enough crossovers involve the series i like but you're doing a great job i feel like this story has depth and that you're doing the characters jsutice. I do wish you were faster on update though...(please stop having a life and work on the story 24/7 jokeing) I find myself reading a chapter and eagerly waiting for the next

 **Author Response:**

 _I guess when you read this chapter it will answer your question about the companion episode._

 **"** **eX0dus":**

Love this story please continue writing it. Well written, a fare few mistakes but still ok.

 **Author Response:**

 _Before publishing this chapter I thoroughly reread every chapter and fixed all the mistakes I could see, but I'm sure there are plenty that are still there. Not matter how many times I check, they always slip through._

 **"** **Tenza-z":**

muy bueno hermano por favor utiliza los continuos favor traductor muy bueno POR

 **Author Response:**

 _International reader, cool._

* * *

 _Chapter 9_

Mal followed by Inara walked swiftly out of the theatre hall, already feeling claustrophobic in the fancy dress he was haphazardly unfastening his wrist cuffs.

"Well?" asked Inara.

"Well what?" responded Mal whose mind was still focused on the epitome of self-importance and grandeur that they had just encountered inside.

"You said you wanted to look him in the eye," said Inara following Mal who walking fast, "You've done that. So what's the plan?"

Mal had started, "The plan is we get back… " but he was interrupted when a passer-by accidently knocked into him.

Inara saw the passer-by reach into Mal's holster and throw his pistol into an alley and then push Mal behind a shadowed building.

The passer-by shoved Mal roughly against the wall and made to speak but Mal got there first, "You've got a lot of nerve letting me see you again."

The passer-by pulled down the hood of a brown beaten leather jacket and said, "I think you best send your companion away now, Captain."

"Harry" whispered Inara shocked to see him here of all places.

"I don't want to have to repeat myself, Captain" said Harry hoarsely.

"And you know that she'll definitely listen to the likes of me" said Mal sarcastically.

Harry turned to Inara and said, "Fine then. Inara, I think its best that you move along now."

Inara looked at Harry defiantly and didn't make to leave. Harry grew angry at Inara's attitude, his hand now resting on his holster, her eyes widened and began to dart between Harry and the Captain.

Withdrawing his pistol Harry said, "The way is see it, you two are on a job, aren't you?"

Neither responded so Harry continued, "Well if you aren't I guess you wouldn't mind if I fired four shots off right here, right now," Harry pointed his pistol into the air threateningly, "If you aren't on a job then I guess your mark isn't going to get spooked."

"Inara, go back to others, I'll get back there fast like" said Mal who couldn't reach any of his weapons in his ridiculous suit.

Inara looked again at Harry and the Captain, but didn't move. Harry cocked his pistol ready to fire and Mal said, "Inara, just go."

Inara turned and moved swiftly from their position behind the building into the main street making her way back to the brothel and the crew.

* * *

Nandi stood up with a start when the brothel's door slammed open. Inara came into view, she was breathing heavy like she had been running, but of course her heels showed no signs of damage.

"What happened?" asked Nandi who now wasn't the only one standing, all of her girls and boys had been waiting in the parlour for them to return and were equally curious.

"Where's the Captain?" asked Kaylee noticing the absent member of their party.

"Did Burgess take him?" asked Nandi.

Inara shook her head in the negative but was still unable to speak.

"Well then, we're in the gorram heck is he?" asked Jayne.

"He," puffed Inara, "… took him."

"Who?" asked Book.

"Harry" said Inara.

* * *

"I had similar thoughts on the matter myself," said the Captain in a much less threating tone than before, "But from the way it looked."

"I know" said Harry who no longer had his pistol drawn and was conversing with the Captain easily.

"We got a deal?" asked the Captain.

Harry nodded and shook the Captains outstretched hand in agreement.

As the two began the walk back to the brothel, Harry said "That crew of yours aren't going to be happy about it."

"They'll deal and I reckon we're going to need all the people we can get," replied the Captain who was dusting his gun off with the cuff of his suit.

* * *

"Harry, as in our Harry?" asked Kaylee confused.

"Yes," said Inara angrily.

"What's he doing all the way out here?" asked Wash.

"Between Harry grabbing Mal and threatening to get us caught I didn't really have the chance to ask," snapped Inara.

"You don't think he'd hurt the Captain, do you?" asked Kaylee to the assembled crew.

"No" said Wash adamantly, "Yes" growled Jayne as he clutched his hand that had long since healed.

"What's goin' on" demanded Nandi.

"Harry," said Kaylee, "he's part of our crew."

"Was part of our crew" insisted Simon.

"Yeah, until he went psycho and attacked me and the moon brained girl," said Jayne.

"That's not what happened" said Wash.

"No, he just tried to kill my sister and set the cargo bay on fire," interjected Simon.

"I told you, Harry wouldn't do that" said Wash.

"Ah-hem" grunted Jayne holding his palm up showing the scar.

"This Harry of yours," asked Nandi, "he got messy black hair, scars and a massive dog."

Before anyone could answer the door opened again and the Captain walked in, Inara was the first react, she began asking him questions rapidly.

"I'm fine, I'm fine" said the Captain.

"Mal," said Wash noticing that Mal was unharmed, "What happened to Harry?"

"I didn't kill him if that's what you're asking," said the Captain.

"Did you get caught?" asked Nandi louder than the rest of the voices.

"No, it weren't like that. I don't reckon he was keen to draw attention to himself either," said the Captain.

"Could've fooled me," scoffed Inara.

"Could be he just didn't want to deal with you," said the Captain nodding towards Inara.

"What is he doing here?" asked the Shepherd.

"Looks like our Mr. Burgess is a popular man," explained the Captain, "Burgess has got himself a shiny piece, a prototype laser pistol, Harry was going to steal it and when he saw Inara and myself he thought we were there for the same reason."

"That does sound like him" admitted Inara.

"So we made a deal," said the Captain, "In exchange for his help tomorrow… "

"No" said Simon, "He isn't getting anywhere close to River again."

"I really don't think it's your choice, doc," said the Captain in an extremely commanding tone, "From the looks of Burgess' gang it ain't going to be no walk in the park tomorrow and god knows we've all seen what Harry is capable of."

Simon, indignant at the Captains proposal said, "Yeah, we know what he's capable of, River especially."

The Captain rounded on Simon, "And what is your sister capable of? We all know that they'd pointed steel before."

The Shepherd interjected, "So Harry says that River attacked him."

"He said as much," said the Captain.

"And you trust him, do you? He wouldn't have run if it had gone down that way" said Simon.

"Why not," said Wash, "he probably knew how it looked and us shooting at him probably didn't help."

"I ain't apologising for shit" grunted Jayne.

"Enough" ordered the Captain, "this ain't a debate, that man out there has a small army and we need everyone we can get, now my feelings for Harry ain't sunshine and roses but we made a deal… "

"What kind of a deal?" asked Nandi fearing that it involved her girls.

"He helps us, and he gets Burgess' precious side arm," said the Captain.

"Hang on, Mal, if that there gun is gorram valuable shouldn't we get it," suggested Jayne.

"That's the deal," said the Captain firmly, "now, Harry's agreed to stay down by the gorge tonight, keep look out and such, and I think he was thinking of some people's feelings on the matter of his being involved," the Captain looked at Jayne, "so he's going to keep his distance."

"Which gorge?" asked Wash.

"West of here, eight-hundred metres or so, Harry's got his hands of a bunch wire charge also, I was thinking that he and the dog could… " said Mal.

"Dog?" asked Nandi.

"Yeah" said the Captain, "so the wire could… "

"Great big mutt size of a mount," asked Nandi crossing her arms.

"Yeah" said the Captain.

"Son of a… " said Nandi as she stormed out the door.

Both the crew and the assembled whores were confused to see Nandi act of she did, they all looked at each other unsure of what to do.

Nandi's voice reach their ears, but they couldn't quite make out the words. Harry stumbled into the brothel having been forcefully pushed in by Nandi who once Harry had regained his footing preceded to slap Harry hard across the face.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" said Nandi.

The crew completely in shock at the situation just stared at the two.

"Huh," asked Nandi, "Cat your tongue, boy? You just go and disappear on me and now I hear you're trying to rip off Burgess, you ain't got no business mixing with him."

"Nandi," said Harry, the crew were taken aback by how hoarse Harry's voice was, "I'm here to help you deal with Burgess."

"Don't get smart with me, boy. You come down to my world and you don't even say hello," said Nandi sternly, "And I ain't forgotten that you didn't take what you earned, I ain't so helpless that I need your pity."

When Nandi looked like she was about hit Harry again, Inara grabbed Nandi's wrist and said, "I hate to interrupt your spirited conversation but he isn't going to be of much use if his face is so swollen that he can't see."

"I think that might be a good idea, Nandi, we need everyone to be ready for tomorrow and we can't do that if some of us can't feel their faces," said the Captain.

While most were keen to start preparing for tomorrow, others we're still staring daggers at Harry who was staring at River with equal venom.

Hoping to get back to the point, Mal spoke, "Now Burgess is gonna come, he'll be aiming to kill, kill every last one of you if it comes to that and he'll sleep well that night."

"Rance Burgess is just a man," said Nandi, "and I won't let any man take what's mine."

"That does sound like your kind of stupid," Inara told Mal.

"Oh, hell, he ain't expectin' much of a fight," said Jayne directly to Harry as he stroked his scarred hand, "Might be we catch him with his drawer low."

"You mean Burgess, right?" asked Wash.

"'Course," grunted Jayne still staring at Harry.

"He'll probably ride in by daylight," said Zoë arming her weapon, "But I figure three-point watch, say, four-hour shift just to be on the safe side."

While Zoë was uneasy with Harry being here, she wasn't about to turn down his help, in truth she regretted how she had reacted back on Serenity when she had shot at him. She knew that Harry was a good person and he wouldn't hurt anyone, well anyone innocent anyway, but at the time all she had seen was Harry emerging from his bunk with a blood stained knife leaving a stabbed Jayne and a terrified River behind. Zoë owed Harry a lot, he had gotten her husband back from Niska and then jeopardised his own life for the sake of the Captain and she had repaid him like she had. She wouldn't make the same mistake again.

Wash was smirking at Zoë, he knew that she had spoken up to deflect from Harry and he was grateful, "Yeah, three point, four hour… should do it," said Wash with a half-grin.

"I'm fair handy with a hammer, Captain" said the Shepherd trying to get the meeting back on track and away from Harry's persecution.

"That so, Shepherd" said the Captain.

"Been following the footsteps of a carpenter for some time now," said the Shepherd making everyone smirk, "I think I can do something about our fortifications."

The Captain continued, "Okay, he'll most like try to burn us out, save their sweat and bullets. Nandi, what's the water supply like here?"

Nandi now focused on the task at hand replied, "Underground well. Pump that draws it up is antiquated, but it don't break down."

The Captain nodded and said, "Kaylee, think you can swing an upgrade for their waterworks?"

"I'll take to Serenity, see what she's got we might use," said Kaylee.

"I'll go with her," said Harry anxious to leave the room.

"No you ain't boy," said Nandi, she walked over to the bar and reached behind returning with a rolled compartment of knives which he pushed into Harry's arms, "I don't care how good you are, you know my rule, you ain't old enough to have an old man's face."

Harry felt his face is surprise, when alone for long periods of time little things slipped Harry's notice, he hadn't even thought about shaving since he'd left Serenity, "You best shave the gorram beard off, boy, or so help me god I'll do it myself and I ain't that careful with blades," said Nandi.

Harry nodded, "Wash parlour's upstairs on the left," said Nandi dropping the stern tone she had talked to Harry in before in favour for her usual sweet one.

Wash and Zoë smirked at Harry being ordered around by Nandi but they didn't have time to enjoy Harry's frustration once River said, "It's starting."

"And that it is," said the Captain not quite taking notice to what River had said, "but time is on the enemy's side."

"Dr. Tam" exclaimed the heavily pregnant Petaline.

Flustered the Captain rambled, "Oh, it's starting. Okay, okay, it's starting. All right, yeah. Everybody, relax. Be calm. Nobody panic, everything's gonna be okay. It'll be all right."

"I got this one, Captain" said Simon as he ushered the expecting mother into the makeshift delivery room.

"Thanks," said the Captain still flustered, "Okay. Okay, then. Let's get to work people."

The Captain turned to leave but froze, he turned to look at Harry who gave him a knowing look.

* * *

Harry stood in front of a large mirror mixing soap and water in the sink below. He washed one of the more usefully sized blades in the soapy water. Harry heard the floor creak outside the door and placed his hand on his pistol that lay on the sink countertop. Nandi entered the wash parlour, closing the door behind her and placed on a sack of coin on the countertop beside Harry's pistol, he didn't say anything.

"You ain't leaving without it," stated Nandi absolutely.

Harry nodded, but Nandi didn't believe him. She sat down behind Harry on a comfortable looking longue, while a bit perturbed by her remaining presence, Harry didn't say anything.

"If you were here, why didn't you come see me?" asked Nandi.

"I'm sort of busy here, Nandi" said Harry as he held the soapy knife to his face.

Rolling her eyes she continued, "If you needed money, you didn't need to steal from Burgess, I'd… " said Nandi.

Harry cut her off, "I don't need money."

"Then why go after the laser pistol?" asked Nandi.

Harry shrugged, "Fanty and Mingo wanted it."

"You really still hanging around with them," scoffed Nandi, "Amateurs at best."

"They're my friends" said Harry as he washed the knife in the sink and again raised in to his face.

"You don't have friends" said Nandi.

"I have friends" insisted Harry.

"Fine, Harry, I reckon you could count all the people you consider friends on both hands, Fanty and Mingo aren't worth the fingers," said Nandi as she handed Harry a towel for him to wipe the knife on.

"Aren't we friends?" asked Harry.

"Meh" shrugged Nandi making Harry smirk which in turn make her smile.

"They your friends out there?" asked Nandi.

Harry sighed and tried to concentrate on shaving which was harder to do when he couldn't use magic while Nandi was in the wash parlour.

"Wash is my friend" said Harry.

"And the others?" Nandi asked.

"Not anymore, I don't think" said Harry in an unnaturally flat tone.

"Harry," asked Nandi seriously, "Did you attack that girl?"

Harry put down the knife, "Yes" he said.

Nandi and Harry were staring at each other's in the reflections of the mirror, "Did she deserve it?" asked Nandi plainly.

"Yes" said Harry immediately.

Nandi nodded and made to leave the parlour, "I'm sleeping in the gorge, tonight, I can't stay here," said Harry.

"The room is still there if want it," said Nandi sympathetically.

"I'll keep that in mind," responded Harry, but Nandi knew he wouldn't.

* * *

Harry heard footsteps up above the ridge of his campsite as he unfurled detonation charge wire. Due to Pup's relaxed attitude Harry didn't take out his pistol.

"So… " said Wash awkwardly.

Harry nodded and threw a coil of wire at Wash, "Unfurl it" said Harry simply.

For a few moments they worked in silence until Wash broke it, "Are we going to talk at all?" he asked.

"About what, Wash?" sighed Harry.

"Oh come on, you know exactly what" said Wash.

"What do you want to know?" asked Harry at little reluctantly.

"What happened that night?" said Wash.

"It's… it's complicated" stammered Harry.

"Really, it's so complicated that you could still tell the Captain" said Wash bitterly.

"It's not that simple" said Harry.

"Bullshit, Harry. I know you and you wouldn't have attacked River, maybe Jayne, but not River," said Wash angrily, "So what happened?"

Harry grunted angrily and dropped his charge wire knowing that he wasn't going to get anything done with Wash around.

"I didn't mean to do it" started Harry.

"So you did attack River" said Wash worriedly.

"Well, yes and no… it's like…" said Harry, but he couldn't quiet find the right words, "see Wash, it's complicated, really complicated."

"No, Harry, it isn't, either you attacked her or she attacked you, it is either ither" said Wash also dropping his charge wire.

"She, she come into my bunk that night and I was asleep," begun Harry, "and she attacked me."

Wash could see in Harry's eyes that he was only telling him a partial truth and was holding back some key elements to the event.

"She attacked you?" asked Wash in a slightly disbelieving tone.

Harry nodded but didn't quiet met Wash's eye, "and, well… I had just sleeping and my heart was racing and I didn't mean to, but I pulled my knife and I was yelling my head off, I guess Jayne must've heard us because next thing I knew I had impaled Jayne and I was running down the catwalk into the cargo bay, you know instinct."

"So it was self-defence?" asked Wash.

Harry shrugged, and Wash continued, "So why did you run?"

"I didn't mean to, like I said it was instinct, but when Zoë fired that warning shot I sort-of, woke up" explained Harry as he absentmindedly kicked the dirt, "and I knew how it looked, Jayne bleeding in my bunk and River scared out of her wits, so I ran."

"That's it?" asked Wash, Harry nodded in response, "That isn't that complicated."

"Yes, it is" Harry insisted.

"It only is if you aren't telling me the whole story, Harry" said Wash.

"That," sighed Harry sitting down against the wall of the gorge, "is what I told the Captain."

Wash looked expectantly at Harry, but Harry didn't continue. Knowing that Harry wasn't going to tell him anything else on the matter, Wash sat down next to Harry.

"So how much are you getting for the pistol" asked Wash trying to break the silence.

"A lot" said Harry simply.

Smiling Wash said, "A lot – a lot or a lot – a lot."

"The former" said Harry also smiling.

Trying to keep the conversation going, Wash asked, "Who's your fence?"

"Nah, I've been contracted to get it for a fee, I don't fence it" said Harry.

Sighing at how he was having to pull every bit of information out of Harry, Wash continued, "Well, then who contracted you?"

"Fanty and Mingo" said Harry.

"Oh yeah, we've done a few jobs for them" said Wash nodding, "how do you know them?"

"We play cards sometimes" said Harry snapping a twig that he picked up from the ground.

"No wonder they've got so much cash then if they are playing against you" joked Wash.

Harry smiling and gave Wash a friendly shove.

"So… " began Harry in the same awkward way that Wash had when he had approached Harry, "How are things on the ship?"

"Fine, nothing to exciting" said Wash.

"Oh, so no kidnapping gangsters or crazy wives of the Captain then?" said Harry.

Smirking Wash replied, "No, nothing like that. Although he did have a dead body come back to life and then died a few hours later, that was a day."

Harry shrugged, "That isn't that interesting I do that every few weeks or so,"

"Oh really, mister interesting what have you been up to then" scoffed Wash.

"Not much" said Harry, "Went on a bit of a bender in Beaumonde, lost a far bit of coin to Fanty and Mingo while there, bought a new ship, destroyed said new ship, met up with some friends on Persephone."

"You don't have friends" said Wash.

"Why does everyone keep saying that, I do have friends, you're my friend," said Harry exasperatedly.

"Okay, you have one friend" said Wash.

"Pup" said Harry.

"Dogs don't count" laughed Wash.

"Nandi then, Nandi is my friend" said Harry.

"Oh really, do all you imaginary friends also slap you across the face?" asked Wash in a fake innocent voice.

"No, well, some do" muttered Harry.

Wash laughed and shoved Harry playfully.

Sighing, Wash asked, "How do you know Nandi, anyway?"

Harry's face darkened, "I, I… worked out of her place a few years back."

"Really," said Wash in a joking tone, "you were one of her boy whores."

"No, no, of course not. I, I… just stayed at her place, didn't have a ship at the time, or maybe I did but I just lost it, I don't remember, so I worked out of her place," said Harry coarsely.

"Why here?" asked Wash curiously.

"I had a bit of a feud with Burgess' father, his son got his taste for fancy toys from his father. Burgess senior was always trying to get his hands on the newest weapons, wanted everything on this world for himself," said Harry, "at first Nandi wanted me to get back some coin that Burgess senior had nicked from one of her girls, which I did, but after that it became I bit like a personal vendetta."

"What happened?" asked Wash.

"Burgess senior died, due to my involvement, which was good, but some good people died also," said Harry, "and for all the good I did, the bad shit came bad in spades. Burgess junior rose up worse than his dad," Harry paused and sighed, "Nandi never blamed me for the bad shit, but it was my fault. In fact if I hadn't gone after his father, we probably wouldn't be here."

"That's quite a tale" said Wash.

"Didn't want to see Nandi now that I'm back here, but that didn't work out to well" said Harry rubbing his face.

"She doesn't seem to hold a grudge on you," said Wash, "The way she acted around you, you'd guess she either be your mother or your lover."

"Neither," said Harry, not wanting Wash to probe too deep into the issue Harry deflected, "Speaking of lovers, has the doc made a move on Kaylee yet."

Smiling Wash answered, "No, not yet. Nowadays I think Kaylee got her eyes on them boy whores."

"They're all vain," said Harry, "She'd do better with the girls, at least they're polite."

"Yeah, don't think Kaylee leans that way," said Wash jokingly, as he stood up and dusted himself off he said, "Okay, let's lay out this charge."

When Harry went to pick up his spool of charge, Wash stopped him, "Before we get this done, two questions."

Harry rolled his eyes but humoured his friend, "Shoot."

"One: How did you set the cargo bay on fire" said Wash.

"Uhhh," stammered Harry, "incendiary grenade."

"Incendiary grenade" stated Wash in a disbelieving voice, "you expect me to believe that you set the whole cargo bay on fire with an incendiary grenade."

"Two incendiary grenades" shrugged Harry, he could feel Fawkes vibrate through the mokeskin pouch against his chest in protest.

"Fine, fine, okay, don't tell me," said Wash while unspooling his wire.

"What was the second question?" asked Harry already regretting asking.

"How many times did you do it with Inara?" asked Wash with a half-smile.

"What?" said Harry once again not meeting Wash's eye.

"You heard me" said Wash.

"What makes you think… " protested Harry, but was cut off by Wash.

"Oh come on, she was cut up when you left and I'm pretty sure something happened during the Lassiter job," said Wash.

Harry didn't reply, "So… " repeated Wash, "How many times?"

"Like a half" said Harry.

"A half, what the hell does that mean?" asked Wash to a retreating Harry who was setting out laying his wire behind him, "A half, that doesn't even make sense," Wash said to himself.

* * *

Inara exited the makeshift birthing suite, she needed to catch her breath, she was no doctor, hell she wasn't even a nurse. As Inara leaned against the doorframe of the suite she heard Wash re-enter the house, the fact that he had slipped out an hour ago towards where the Captain had said Harry was staying hadn't gone unnoticed by Inara.

"A half, a half… " muttered Wash to himself as he went up the opposite stairs, not noticing Inara.

Harry being here wasn't doing wonders for Inara's stress levels, if she was honest with herself it could be said that she had missed Harry, but she also had never expected to see Harry again, the verse was a big place, yet she had to run into the same person within a few months.

Inara was curious though, curious about how Nandi knew Harry, no one could deny that they had some sort of history together, but what sort of history. From the tone in which she spoke to Harry it would seem that was a sort of mother figure to Harry, but giving that the last time a women from Harry's past had turned out to be his former lover, as well as the Captain's wife, Inara wasn't sure.

Inara asked Simon if he needed anything, he guessed that it wouldn't be time until closer to morning so Inara could take a rest if she needed it.

She probably should get some sleep before tomorrow, but for now she wanted to speak with Nandi.

Inara knocked softly on her door and entered, "A moment?" asked Inara.

"Is something wrong with the baby?" Nandi asked worriedly.

"No, no, everything's going smoothly, Simon says it will be a few hours yet" said Inara as she sat down of the lounge next to Nandi.

Nandi put away the piece of paper she was writing on and turned to Inara, "Well then, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked.

"Harry" said Inara.

"Oh, Harry" repeated Nandi nodding.

"How do you know him?" asked Inara, perhaps a little too bluntly.

Receiving only a raised eyebrow from Nandi, Inara said, "I mean what is the nature of your relationship?"

"Inara," sighed Nandi, "There ain't no reason to be speaking so proper all the way out here, ask what you want to ask."

"Fine" said Inara, "Are you and him… "

Nandi smirked seeing how uncomfortable Inara was, but decided take her out of her misery, "No, we ain't never been coupled," said Nandi, "Why're you asking, you and him ain't together are you?"

"No, we aren't" replied Inara, not quite meeting Nandi's eye.

"So you two ain't never… " probed Nandi.

"No," said Inara too quickly for Nandi's liking, "well, no really, not fully anyway."

"Really," said Nandi, "thought it was the companion's duty to do the job right, or has it changed since I studied."

"I wasn't Harry's companion, and it didn't… oh, never mind" said Inara.

"Now, I ain't judging" said Nandi.

"Fine, but you two aren't" said Inara.

"No, when I knew him he was with Kass," said Nandi, when he finished her statement she had a look on her face that showed that she hadn't meant to say what she said.

"Kass?" asked Inara trying to sound only slightly curious.

"Who?" asked Nandi looking angry with herself.

"Kass, you said Harry was with Kass," said Inara.

"Yeah… " said Nandi nervously, "Kass."

"And… " asked Inara.

"Well she and Harry were together back when I knew him, this was about four years back now," said Nandi.

"Harry was recommended by a former client of mine, I needed some stuff to set this place and the like, so I got Harry to get me some solar sheeting, you know we could generate our own power, wouldn't have to pay it in trade with the town," Nandi said pouring herself a drink, "and Harry came through, got the sheeting and didn't play piss about with the cost. So I asked him to do another job, he seemed like the trustworthy sort, again this was back before we were set up good and the like, so we had girls go out on callout, and one of the girls was with Rance Burgess."

"Wait, Rance Burgess" asked Inara confused.

"No, Rance Burgess Senior, yeah well he knew we weren't protected and decided it was fair since we weren't paying him for our power no more that he could just take what he thought we owed him. He stole a fair bit of coin from one of our girls and I asked Harry to get it back," said Nandi as she poured another drink and handed it to Inara, "so Harry goes in, gets the coin and comes back. Something happened then and I don't know what, Harry never said, but when Harry came back he was angry, angry at Burgess. I had offered Harry half of the coin he got back as payment, but he didn't won't it, still doesn't. Harry took it upon himself to wage a one-man war against Burgess, well it was a one-man war until Kass joined him."

"Was Kass a soldier?" asked Inara.

"No, she was one of my girls, like me she trained as a companion even graduated, but decided the life wasn't for her," said Nandi.

"Wait, this Kass was a companion… " asked Inara.

"Former companion, why?" said Nandi.

Inara shrugged, "He always seemed to hate companions, or rather the aspects of companionship."

"I don't know about all that," mused Nandi, "Well, anyhow, Harry and Kass started targeting Burgess Senior, they would ambush his gang and stop his convoys, he called it guerrilla warfare."

"So, what happened" asked Inara.

Nandi took a large gulp of her wine and continued somewhat reluctantly, "Well, one day a girl of mine gets word that Burgess has got himself a new shiny toy, she said that he called it a 'death bomb', not a very inspired man that Burgess, well you see you would launch this thing up into the air and it would release a gas, this gas when settled would kill all who was within its radius within a week or so," Nandi took another large gulp of her wine, "So of course Harry got it into his head that he had to steal it, and Kass insisted on coming along no matter how dangerous Harry said it was."

"Sounds like a brave girl" said Inara.

"Too brave," said Nandi sorrowfully, "So they go in, they get this gas stuff and they are on their way out when Burgess comes across them, so they're corned nothing to do, and Burgess wasn't the kind of man for imprisonment, they were dead. Kass… Kass throws the canister and shoots it, Rance only had a small sample, I guess he was planning to replicate it or something, so Kass shoots it, she thought she was saving her and Harry and damning Burgess. The information they had said it was only enough for a single metre radius, I guess they were wrong. Kass provided the distraction and Harry fought their way out, Rance got sick, but so did Kass, Harry was fine, but Kass had sealed her fate."

Nandi wiped a single tear from her check, "Harry sat with her for five days, didn't sleep, didn't eat, he just sat with her. Harry would never admit it, but he loved her. And what happened, happened," finished Nandi.

The two sat silent for moment, "Is that why Harry left?" asked Inara.

"I think so, but not before he walked straight into town and into Burgess' house," said Nandi.

"He killed him," said Inara.

"No, he already had a death sentence, just like Kass," said Nandi sighing and closing her eyes, "He tortured Burgess for whatever time he had left, some of the girls heard that their regulars said that the screams could be heard all though town, and try as they might Burgess' men couldn't get through the door to his house, guess Harry barricaded it or the like."

"Wow," was all Inara could muster.

"We couldn't bury her, the virus and all, had to burn the body," said Nandi, "He left no long after, cleared out his and Kass' room and left before morning, that being said he still left his payment behind."

"And you never saw him again?" asked Inara.

"I tried to wave him a couple of times, but I didn't know where he was or his ship, I called around some of his contacts," answered Nandi, "some had seen him, most hadn't. He did send me a package though, about a year after it all happened. He sent some coin and a few photographs, he was always playing with that damn camera."

Nandi stood up and started looking in her desk draws, "You know I think it's around here somewhere," she said, "He sent me a photograph that he had taken of Kass, said he thought I should have it."

Nandi gave up looking and sat back down next to Inara who looked a little dumbstruck at the story.

Inara downed the last of her drink, "He never mentioned her."

"Don't think he even lets himself dream about her," said Nandi, "he acts all tough, but he really loved her."

"I've… " started Inara as she made her way to the door, "I've got to go… I've got to go get some sleep, it won't help if I'm half asleep delivering a baby".

Nandi nodded and packed away the bottle and glasses, she looked at the clock, it was about half an hour before Mal wanted to talk to her about the plan tomorrow. When Nandi turned back around all she saw was the swish of Inara's skirt as she retreated out of the room.

* * *

"Well, yeah, why… why wouldn't you be?" stammered the Captain awkwardly.

"I wouldn't say I'm entirely okay," said Inara in response, "I'm a little appalled at her taste."

The morning had bought with it a clear sky, one could wonder if that was a good or a bad sign. As Inara brushed past the Captain in the hall she shielded her eyes from his gaze, not wanting for him to see her cry.

Inara all but ran across the dune towards the gorge, it was wonder she could see where she was going as she was rapidly blinking the tears out of her eyes.

Harry was kicking dirt over the detonation cord when he heard her coming, Inara was barrelling towards Harry at an alarming rate. Harry turned towards her a little uncertain of her motive, but when she got within reach she launched herself at Harry, she began kissing him hurriedly, Harry tried to speak as she attacked his jaw but was stopped when she started to unbuckle his belt.

"Hey, hey, Inara, stop, stop" said Harry trying to back away from Inara who would advance whenever he stepped away.

"What" said Inara confidently, but the effect was diminished by the obvious streaks of tears.

"What's going on?" asked Harry taking the opportunity to redo his belt.

"Nothing, just making up for lost time," said Inara as she made to embrace him again.

"Inara, this isn't passion, this is hurt and pain" said Harry, "what's going on?"

Inara looked scared at how precise his deduction was.

"So,… " faltered Inara, "so, what if it is."

Harry shook his head at the ground not meeting her eye, "I think you should go inside, the doc will probably need you soon."

Harry look up expecting her to be walking back to the brothel but was greeted by a hard slap to the face.

"So what, I'm not good enough for you is it, I'm not Dani, or River" said Inara slightly hysterically, "or Kass."

Hearing that name Harry's head shot up, all traces of pity and sympathy for Inara disappeared, they were replaced by rage. Harry was scaring Inara, she was slowly backing away from him.

"You don't ever say that name again, you don't even think it" growled Harry, "I don't give a damn why you're upset, for all I care you can go get spaced," Harry pointed towards the brothel, "You see that house up there Inara, you can go piss off up there for the rest of the job."

"Do I make myself clear, Inara?" growled Harry, Inara didn't nod or respond verbally in the affirmative, she turned and quickly made her way up the hill and away of the man who was currently the embodiment of rage.

* * *

Harry could hear the whooping and cheering of Rance Burgess Junior and his gang long before they came over the ridge. It wasn't long before the sound of machine gun fire ringed throughout the dune. Luckily Jayne managed to fire a shot off at the turretman and disable their literal 'big gun'. Once the men had galloped or in Burgess' case hovered past Harry's position, he started opening fire on their turned backs. Harry could see that Burgess was nearing the brothel and the crew were about to be overwhelmed.

"Wash" yelled the Captain over the coms, "where the hell is my spaceship?"

"We're pinned down, Captain" shouted Wash, "Burgess' men are in the ship."

"How many?" Harry asked.

"'Bout half dozen" shouted Wash.

"Block your ears, Captain" shouted Harry as he flipped the switch in his hand.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. Four consecutive explosions bought with them the yells and screams of about half a Burgess' men.

"Hold on, Wash" shouted Harry as he kicked his bike into gear, "coming to you."

As Harry sped from his position across the dune towards Serenity he could see through the clearing smoke and dust that unfortunately Burgess hadn't perished in his explosion, the distinctive usage of the laser pistol proved that. Harry hastily drove his bike up Serenity's ramp followed by Pup who bounded up the stairs and down the catwalk.

Running into the kitchen Harry could see that Pup had already taken down one of Burgess' men and was working on the second. Harry fired upon the third as he heard the unmistakable sound of a man's jugular being torn out.

Kaylee opened the door and looked disturbed, yet relived that their attackers were no more, Harry guessed that her and Wash must've already dealt with the other men.

"Should we get her flying?" asked Kaylee uncertainly.

"Think we've past that point," said Wash entering the bloody kitchen.

Kaylee, Wash and Harry ran out of the kitchen, eager to re-enter the fight. As they neared the cargo bay entrance they could see that Burgess in his hovercraft was doing a runner.

As Kaylee saw Harry flick his wrist and withdraw his hunting knife, Wash said, "I think he has it handled," nodding at the Captain who was pursing Burgess on horseback.

* * *

Wash and Kaylee seemed quite content as the three walked back to the brothel, that was until they saw the absent member of the gathering outside the brothel. Jayne was standing over two tied men while the Captain and Inara threw Burgess to the ground as he yelled for the mother of his child.

Harry feverishly searched the assembled crowd for her.

"Where's Nandi?" Harry asked already knowing the answer.

Burgess spat on the ground, "That whore got what was comin' to her."

Quicker than anyone could speak Harry drew his pistol and killed the two captured men.

As Harry entered Burgess' eyeline, he said, "You, you're the one who butchered my father," Burgess let out a sickening laughter, "and all for that whore of yours, yeah my father told me before you murdered him, he told me how you carried her out of the house," Burgess spat blood out of his mouth onto Harry's boots, "I guess it's a noble thing to go to war for, a nice tight whor… "

Burgess didn't get to finish his insult as Harry plunged his hunting knife into Burgess' throat and sliced through the bone and muscle, as Burgess fell to the ground, Harry snatched the laser pistol out of the Captain's grip and fire six precise bolts off hitting each of Burgess' men that remained. The seventh shot hit the traitorous Chari in the gut.

"Now what's that saying 'bout apples falling from trees" said Harry maliciously as he spat on the dead Burgess at his feet.

Harry stormed off inside leaving eight dead men, a dying women and the crumple form of Rance Burgess Junior lying partially decapitated behind on the dune floor.

It wasn't an hour later that they all stood in silence as each of Nandi's girls and boys threw an othering into the grave or in Harry's case, a small pouch of coins.

After the service the crew immediately prepared Serenity for atmo, they obviously didn't want to stay a minute longer to endure what they saw as a failure.

Wash approached Harry as he fastened the clips on his saddle bags to his bike, withdrawing on object from his pocket Harry made to put in the bag.

"What is that?" asked Wash quietly, he had noticed the object.

Harry handed a photograph to Wash as he bent down to redo his boot laces, although they were already fine as they were.

The photograph that Wash was looking at had captured a moment in which a beautiful blonde woman was playfully wrestling with a large dog on a picnic blanket. At a second glance Wash noticed the dog was the one standing beside him.

After a few moments Harry climbed on his bike, he stretched out his hand to Wash. Forgoing the handshake Wash gave Harry a brotherly hug.

"Who is she?" Wash asked withdrawing from the hug and handing the photograph back to Harry.

"Someone special" said Harry as he kicked the bike into gear and sped away.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author responses to reviews of the ninth chapter of** ** _Immortality in the Verse_** **and reviews posted on any and all chapters of** ** _Immortality in the Verse_** **since the release of the ninth chapter on either this site, Harry Potter FanFic Archive or Archive of Our Own.**

 **"** **madsloth":**

His pouch was still disillusioned against his chest in what 500 years Harry never thought of doing the same to his wand holster?

 **Author Response:**

 _Harry doesn't need to disillusion his wand holster, to everyone it seems like a knife holster on his wrist._

 **"** **FateBurn":**

Good chapter although I was a little confused about what upsetted Inara in the morning for her to go after like that. Please continue again soon.

 **Author Response:**

 _In the episode of Firefly Inara finds Mal leaving Nandi's room in the morning, in the show she is in love with Mal so that is what makes her upset, so she is emotionally crushed and tries to find solace in Harry. I apologise for the confusion, I just assumed that the people who read this story would have watched Firefly._

 **"** **The 10th Wand":**

Interesting chapter, thank you for the update. I do wonder what was up with Inara after she saw Kass.

 **Author Response:**

 _Kass passed away long before this chapter, Inara has never met Kass._

 **"** **Saintmichael95":**

I noticed we didn't get any River in this chapter…

 **Author Response:**

 _I also noticed that._

 **"** **darkdannyb":**

I loved it, I like the play on harry as a tough loner but I don't think Inara would have backed down as easy yeah he may have scared her but i see Inara yelling the place down and storming off in anger. where's pup the poor little mosnter didn't even get a look in :-( great chapter. if you rewrite may want to put more into the fight and expand on harry's interactions with the crew simon maybe been a bit more forceful river mentioning something crazy that no one understands about the harry leaving.

But once agian great story please don't stop

 **Author Response:**

 _Thanks for the review, I think the reason for Inara backing down in the argument was because she had crossed the line, Nandi had sworn Inara to secrecy for a reason knowing that it is important to Harry and so when Inara invoked Kass she knew she was in the wrong, also he just found out the Captain was sleeping with Nandi, she probably wasn't in the most intelligently argumentative state._

* * *

 _Chapter 10_

The halls of Serenity were dead, voices could be heard, but there was no life left within her.

* * *

The crew sat assembled in the kitchen, no one was speaking but their tension rolled off them in waves.

Sighing the Captain said, "Okay, Kaylee, why don't you speak your piece?"

Kaylee was leaning against the cabinets, she had an air about her as if of a scolded child.

"It was when the Captain and Wash got took by Niska," began Kaylee.

Straightening somewhat at the mention of the incident while Zoë placed a comforting hand of her husband's shoulder, the Captain said, "I ain't likely to forget that anytime soon."

"Well, we all went in… me too," continued Kaylee, "didn't make much account of myself, I'm afraid."

"I got no problem with the notion of you not killing nobody, Kaylee," said the Captain reassuringly.

Simon, confused at the point of the discussion interjected, "What's this got to do with River? She wasn't even in that fight."

"Well, no, she was," said Kaylee almost directly to Simon, the person she didn't want to be mad at her, "I got pinned down and there were three guys and I couldn't," Kaylee seemed to lose her words at that point, but continued nonetheless, "and then River comes up. She looks out, sees 'em all, and they was spread out, you know, had some cover. She… she only looked for a second and… took my gun… closed her eyes… killed 'em."

"She shot them?" asked Simon incredulously.

Kaylee nodded, "All three. Dead, in an instant. With her eyes still closed."

Jayne wasn't convinced, "That's, ah, you saw it wrong."

"I thought I must have," admitted Kaylee, "but I wasn't the only one who saw."

"Who… ?" asked Zoë.

"Harry," said Kaylee to the sighs of the crew, Harry was a difficult subject aboard Serenity.

"Harry saw it?" asked Book.

"Yeah," nodded Kaylee, "he had come out, guns up and was about the shoot them, he probably could've, but River beat him to it."

Zoë seemed to processing the information, "Is it possible that Harry actually shot them and River was just micking?"

"I told myself that was what happened," said Kaylee, "then after the fight Harry came to me and asked if I wanted to talk 'bout it, 'bout what River did. He knew it was her, he seemed more impressed than anything."

"How come we didn't hear about this?" asked Wash.

"I told Harry, no I pleaded with him to say that he shot them, I made him tell me that he shot them, made him make me believe that River didn't do it," said Kaylee not making eye contact with the crew, "I think he took pity on me, he more or less said what I needed to hear, but us three that were there knew. River shot them, and I didn't see it wrong, not a jot, and it weren't auto fire or luck. She just… she just did the math."

Zoë curious more than anything now said, "You understand how that sounds?"

"What," started Jayne sarcastically, "she killed 'em with mathematics. What else could it have been?"

Kaylee shook her head, "You couldn't have done it, Jayne, nor you, Cap'n. Nobody can shoot like that that's a person."

"So River's not a person," said Simon hurt.

"Oh, please don't be mad" pleaded Kaylee.

"I just want to understand what you're saying here," said Simon passive aggressively, "I though River was your friend."

Kaylee offended at the notion of her not liking River said, "She is. But, Simon, the way she… right after, she looked at me and, she smiled… like nothing was wrong. Like we were playing, … scared me."

Book who had stayed silent for most of the discussion spoke up, "Could be she saved your life, Kaylee."

Kaylee knew this and she didn't want to seem like she didn't, she said, "Oh, I'm all aware of that, and I'm not saying… "

Simon cut Kaylee off in her step, "She probably didn't even know what was going on," said Simon, "Thought it was a game."

"Later on you can explain to me how that's a comfort," rebutted Jayne, "Might have to use some of that math we've been hearing about."

Not wanting to escalate the issue without discussion Mal interjected, "What we got here to deal with is the larger issue, and that larger issue is we got someone on board this ship might be a danger to us. Ain't a question of whether we like her? Some of us have grown attached to River. Kaylee, I know you have, or you would've spoken up sooner, which, by the by, you should have. I find River pleasant enough myself but she does have an oddness to her, and I ain't talking about her proficiency with firearms. Girl know things, things she shouldn't, things she couldn't."

Confused, Jayne said, "What, are you saying she's a witch?"

"Yes, Jayne. She's a witch" joked Wash, but the joke didn't sink in with Jayne, "She has had congress with the beast."

Even more confused, Jayne said, "She's in Congress?"

"How did your brain even learn human speech?" asked Wash, "I'm just so curious."

Fed-up with the joking nature that the discussion had turned, Inara interjected, "This isn't a joking matter. This is about over lives and River's."

"Thank you" said Mal genuinely.

As if trying to reason with the crew, Simon said, "She's deeply intuitive. It's true that sometimes… "

Arms folded in an authoritative way, Mal interrupted Simon's reasoning, "I don't think she's intuitive, doctor. I think she's a reader."

"Psychic?" said Zoë.

"Is that even remotely possible?" asked Wash to the gathered crew.

"You tell me," said Mal nodding to Simon, "You've been studying what they've done to her."

"They've, uh, they definitely altered the way she reacts to things, even the way she perceives, but I'm not… " said Simon his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Psychic, though," questioned Wash, "that sounds like something out of science fiction."

With a half smirk only a wife could give to her husband, Zoë said, "We live in a spaceship, dear."

"So?" asked Wash reasonably.

Jayne who was struggling to digest what the others were saying spoke up, "Whoa. Back up a sec. Are you saying she really reads minds?"

"Or near enough," said Mal calmly, "I ain't alone thinking along those lines neither. I've had my suspicions for something of a while now and what Harry said sort of clinched it for me."

"Pardon, Captain?" said Zoë.

"Back when we were at… Nandi's," said Mal struggling on the name of his deceased lover, "when myself and Inara ran into Harry, after he shoed you away," Mal nodding to Inara, "I confronted him and about what happened the night he ran, after a bit of shoe-horning 'round the subject from his part, I asked plain-like if he thought she was a reader, gauge his reaction or some such, he weren't shocked that I had my suspicions."

"He was probably just deflecting, knew what would happen if he told the truth," sighed Simon still reeling from the idea of his sister being psychic.

"He didn't have no reason to be lying," said Mal, "Could've got me caught, had a gun, he was in control. It was only after he said his piece that he gave me my sidearm back."

"And what did he say?" asked Book.

"He said she was a reader, said he had experience with the likes of them before," said Mal.

"He was probably… " began Simon to be cut off by Mal.

"That ain't all he said," said Mal louder to cut Simon off, "Said he was a reader too."

"What?" Inara and Wash said in unison.

"Said he was a reader, 'sept he had control of it, not like River," said Mal.

Jayne, his face contorted with confusion said, "Wait, so now Harry reads minds too?"

"He said it ain't exactly like that," sighed Mal, "said he that could read but that he also could block out readers, readers like River. That was why she was always going off at him, he said that River was used to being able to see inside of all of us that when she couldn't see inside of him, even if she didn't want to, she went all… you know."

"Convenient" said Simon, his words were supposed to be sarcastic but they came out as genuine, "How did Harry have control of it?"

"Didn't say exactly, just said practice," explained Mal, "He said that River could've controlled it, but the damage of her brain wasn't doing her any favours."

"Aren't we skipping over the fact that Harry could read our minds," said Jayne.

"He said he hadn't ever intentionally read us?" said Mal.

"Intentionally?" said Inara sternly.

Mal sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose trying to make sense of it, "He said the he picks up on surface thoughts, major emotions and all, like if any of use was going to attack him, he said that couldn't be stopped but he never read our specific thoughts, like what River does."

"Well at least that's something," joked Kaylee half-heartedly.

"Harry ain't the sort to lie, and if he did I would've been able to tell," said Mal, "The point is that Harry confirmed that River was a reader, and a dangerous one at that, she can't control it, her… abilities are tied in with her instincts, like when she was all chummy with Harry and then she turned feral and the like, she couldn't control it, it was just her mind reacting to what it thought was an attack, but in reality was Harry blocking her from reading him."

"Why wouldn't he tell us this?" asked Simon.

"Doc, you of all people," said Mal incredulously, "would have you believe him."

"That don't explain why had stabbed me," said Jayne, "twice" he remembered.

"I'd think that young River tried to read Harry at his most vulnerable" said Book softly.

"When he was asleep" nodded Mal, "Harry said that his," Mal sighed trying to find a way to not sound ridiculous, "… shields… we're weaker and she slipped in."

"And he woke up and found what River had done," nodded Wash making sense of the situation.

"A man with secrets would react violently to being compromised," said Book.

"When I spoke to Harry when we were at the 'Heart of Gold' he said that River attacked him and he just snapped on instinct, he said he didn't hurt her but then Jayne must've heard him shouting at her and then everything sort of escalated," said Wash.

"If all of this is true," supposed Jayne, "which I ain't saying is so, couldn't Harry just show River to do what he does, you know, control it."

The crew were momentarily shocked at Jayne's sound logic, Mal responded, "I didn't think he wanted us to know what he could do, didn't want us thinking wrong of him."

"And after what River did," mused Wash, "I'm not so sure Harry is lining up to be her teacher."

"After what Harry did" yelped Simon, "he nearly killed Riv… "

Book interrupted Simon, "He didn't touch River that night, I supposed that like River who was accustomed to being able to read everyone and when she couldn't reacted violently, Harry was accustomed to being shielded and when River took advantage of his vulnerability she probably saw a lot of things that Harry didn't want anyone of us to know. It's no wondering that he did what he did."

Kaylee spoke up tentatively, "Wash, Inara, you don't think that Harry was telling the truth? There ain't no such thing as mind reading."

"When nothing makes sense," said Wash, "the strangest things start to."

"I've heard tales of people who could do it," said Inara, "but that's what I thought they were, tales."

"They fact of the matter is that that girl has done some impossible things, am I alone of thinking along these lines?" asked Mal.

"No" admitted Book.

Jayne having enough of the discussion and who was still thoroughly confused about the whole damn thing said, "Well, I don't like the idea of someone hearing what I'm thinking."

"No one likes the idea of hearing what you're thinking," said Inara cattily.

"The Alliance could have any number of uses for a psychic," mused Book.

Remembering the skill of which she had fought Harry, Zoë said, "A psychic… or an assassin."

Simon who despite his belief in the sciences was slightly considering the impossible said sadly, "She's just a kid. And she just wants to be a kid."

Placing his hands of a chair, Mal said to Simon and the crew as a whole, "I wish it were that simple."

"Yeah, and if wishes were horses, we'd all be eatin' steak," spat Jayne.

Book said half-hearty, "Well I don't think Harry's going to agree to teach her, not that we even know where he is or how to get in touch with him, once someone see's your core, I don't think you could ever interact with them the same way again."

"Well then, what do we plan to do about this?" said Jayne firmly.

Mal said heavily, "Well that's the question."

"I don't think she'd ever hurt any of us," said Simon.

"Maybe you're right, but we know that them Alliance cutters did more than scar her brain, they taught her to fight, if Harry weren't as good a fighter as he was, I think she might've killed him. We know that she definitely has some sort of triggers, triggers we ain't got no idea how to deal with," said Mal calmly, "I ain't going to make a decision on anything till I thought on it awhile."

Looking at the crew Mal said, "It's late, let's get some rest."

* * *

The halls of Serenity were dead, voices could be heard, but there was no life left within her.

It had been four months since the universe battle and the Miranda secret had been revealed, it seemed as if the colour had been sucked out of Serenity. Without its pilot, Serenity wasn't the same. Without is preacher, Serenity wasn't the same. A sort of dejected stability enveloped the crew, while there wasn't anything to complain about, there wasn't any life left within Serenity.

After Miranda, the crew had mourned their losses and had been comforted by the notion that what they had done was 'the right thing to do'. Inara hadn't gone back to the house, but had chosen to reclaim her spot on Serenity, while Simon and Kaylee had found solace in one another. Zoë was heartbroken and rightfully so, Wash was her everything, and he was gone, yet she was still here. Zoë found comfort in the job, first mate, she could do that, she could be the first mate, she could do that well. Jayne was Jayne. The Captain was now filling the position of pilot, while he could never dream of having the same raw natural talent for the craft as Wash had, he was a fair flyer. River had appointed herself co-pilot, surprisingly that was a job she could do, without the gnawing knowledge of Miranda inside her head she could function at a level that nobody had ever thought possible. River still had the occasional outburst and was still River-like in her oddness, but she was calm, well as calm as River could ever be.

Serenity was still but she was groaning, she had crashed into a dangerously unstable ice field, or as the Captain would put it, Serenity landed just a little fast-like. Kaylee had repelled of the ship's top and was hastily wielding the torn rotating propulsion covering while Simon held her tools. River was hanging upside down from the catwalk humming to herself while the Captain was fastening down the mule and some collected cargo boxes. Zoë exited the kitchen where she and Jayne were collecting the spilled rations into the appropriate cupboards.

Walking down into the cargo, with a sigh Zoë said, "Captain, now this here is a problem."

Pulling hard on a fastening belt, the Captain replied, "Nah, Kaylee will patch up Serenity before the ice shifts."

"It's not that, Captain" said Zoë with a swallow, "We need a proper pilot."

The Captain was a little shocked at his first mate's statement, he had thought that for a long time. While he and River managed well enough, well… their current predicament spoke volumes. He had avoided bringing up hiring a new pilot for as long as he could, he didn't want for Zoë to think he was trying to replace Wash, which he never would.

"That so?" asked the Captain.

Zoë knew that the Captain had avoided bringing up the subject, she had as well. But their situation demanded action.

"I think it's plain to see that our current arrangement isn't working," said Zoë her eyes for once not actually meeting her Captain's.

"It don't have to be like that," the Captain offered, "River, with a bit more practice, okay a lot more practice she could… "

Zoë interrupted, "It ain't just that Captain. River is needed, both of you are. Me and Jayne aren't like to pull off many ground jobs if our Captain and our reader are stuck in the bridge."

"I am capable" said River from her upside down hanging position.

"Nobody isn't saying you ain't" said the Captain.

"I am capable, but others are more so," River sorrowfully admitted, she liked piloting Serenity, but she like all the other crew knew that she and the Captain combined weren't at the same level that Wash was.

"That so, little one" the Captain asked River.

River nodded but in her position it just jostled her backwards and forwards, nevertheless the expression was conveyed.

"Listen, Zoë, you know I ain't bought it up before, didn't want nobody to think that we could replace him," reasoned the Captain.

"I know, Captain," Zoë nodded, "But I don't see how we can go on like we are."

"It's simple mathematics," said River still sillily dangling from the catwalk.

"What's that?" asked the Captain.

"Two pilots costs two soldiers," explained River as if to a child, "But a new one repays us."

Despite River's phrasing the Captain and Zoë did understand, "Well I ain't never been one for calculations and the like," said the Captain looking at Zoë, trying to make sure she wasn't secretly against the idea of replacing their pilot.

Zoë put her hands on her hips and said, "In the case of mathematics, I think it's wise to be listening to our prodigy, Captain."

The Captain turned away and nodded, not wanting to meet the eyes of his first mate.

Zoë walked up the stairs to the catwalk, "It's settled then, I'll reach out to our contacts, ask for some recommendations."

Once the Captain was sure that Zoë wasn't in the cargo bay anymore, he thought it safe to turn around. He had dreaded the topic of a new pilot, he knew that the crew saw it as moving on from Wash, but this was necessity. He looked up and saw River still dangling upside down, she looked serene, but sad at the same time.

* * *

"Badger" said the Captain.

"Badger" nodded Zoë.

"Badger" repeated the Captain.

"Is there a problem, sir?" asked Zoë.

"No, no, no problem at all," mused the Captain, "Just making sure that we are talkin' 'bout the same person."

"Serenity is unpopular" spoke up River.

"She's what now?" asked the Captain actually moving in his pilot chair to look at his co-.

"No one wants to dance with her," said River.

"I… just…," the Captain shook his head, "go shi, now I can't remember what I was thinking about."

"Badger, sir," Zoë said calmly.

"Right, yes, Badger" said the Captain remembering his train of thought.

"Badger" River nodded in confirmation.

"Okay, so please tell me out of all our near and dear friends, why are we listening to Badger's recommendation" asked the Captain.

"Because Serenity is unpopular" said River again.

"She's right, sir. No one wants to deal with Serenity at the moment, despite no one accept for the whole of the top tier Alliance members knowing that Miranda was because of us, our so called friends all suspect us," explained Zoë.

"So our near and dear kicked us while were down," mused the Captain, "Feeling the friendship."

"We have friends," confirmed River absentmindedly.

"We have contacts," Zoë corrected River, "It's just Badger was the only one in range that answered."

"Fine," said the Captain, "Whose he got?"

"Didn't give us a name," said Zoë, "Just said he was new on his radar and his was very good, and Badger seemed to hold this last part in the highest regard, he is very cheap, seems the guys needs the work."

River scratched her head and said, "That's slightly ominous."

"Ominous," repeated the Captain, "How do we even know Badger's guy is on the level?"

"We don't" admitted Zoë, "But he is our only option at the moment, sir."

"Fine," said the Captain standing up and making to leave the bridge, "Plot the course for where exactly."

"Osiris" said River and Zoë in unison, no matter how often River did those things it still unnerved Zoë.

The Captain nodded, "Send a wave to Inara, she is still there, ask her if she wants to dock."

Five seconds after the Captain left, he returned, "Badger" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, sir, Badger" said Zoë.

* * *

The Captain, Zoë and Jayne walked in silence up the steps of a fairly dirty inn. Even on a world like Osiris the slums still looked like slums, they could hear the unmistakeable sounds of lovemaking as they passed the doors, ignoring the shouts and moans the three looked for a particular room.

"Should be this one, sir" said Zoë looking at the information she had scribbled on the paper she grasped in her palm.

They could hear loud music reverberating from inside the room, Zoë was slightly nervous at the situation from what Badger had told her the person was something of the quiet introverted type.

Jayne had raised his boot ready to smash in the door before the Captain had stopped him, "I'm not thinking that our new hire is going to be the like that enjoys having their room busted open, Jayne."

"If you say so, Mal" said Jayne gruffly.

Despite reprimanding Jayne for his violent approach, the Captain nonetheless ushered Jayne to enter the room first, after all he had Vera.

Not a second after Jayne opened the door was Jayne impaled in his shoulder with a knife. Zoë and the Captain burst into the room guns razed looking for the attacker.

"CAPTAIN" the attacker yelled over the blaring music.

Zoë and the Captain looked thoroughly confused at the sight before them. The room was totally trashed, anything that could be shattered, was shattered, anything that could be broken, was broken and there was a sickly smattering of blood across the walls and floor. And to top it all off, sitting on the remnants of a torn up mattress and splintering bed frame sat Harry.

"Hey, didn't fancy seeing you guys here of all places" said Harry happily.

Harry stood up from the failing bed and walked over the section of the floor where he had left a large bottle. Walking over to where Jayne was slumped against to door Harry pulled out his knife and poured some of liquid onto the wound before downing the almost full bottle.

"Hey, would you look at that?" said Harry, "Same exact spot, eh Jayne, seems my knife doesn't like you so much."

Picking up another bottle, Harry walked back to the Captain and Zoë who were staring blankly at Harry while still having their guns raised. Harry pushed two partially shattered glasses into their arms and poured them drinks, spilling more than he poured.

"So, guys, what are you doing here," said Harry drunkenly, noticing that they weren't drinking Harry said continued, "C'mon good drink shouldn't be wasted, but on the other hand this isn't good drink."

The Captain and Zoë still didn't drink their glasses, it wasn't the shock at seeing Harry here that had them so perturbed, but it was the fact that Harry was acting so un-Harry-like. The last they had seen of Harry was at Nandi's funeral and now here Harry stood or stumbled might be a better description, utterly smashed off his head and weirdly tapping his feet the loud music that was playing.

"Well, if you aren't going to have it, then it should go to the more deserving," said Harry taking the Captain's glass on handing it to Jayne who had made himself stand upright and was wondering why the Captain hadn't shot Harry.

As Jayne downed his drink and gasped as it hit his throat, the Captain spoke, "You're the pilot Badger recommended."

"Can't say I've flown with a badger before, Captain, but you know what I actually knew a whole house full of badgers," laughed Harry stupidly as he walked over to the music box and turned a dial making it louder.

"You get it," said Harry, "Badgers because of the house, you know the animal thing."

"Can't say I'm following you, Harry," said Zoë, "but are you saying that you aren't the pilot that Badger told us about."

"No, I don't think that's what I was saying," said Harry as he pulled back the sheet of the bed revealing an arsenal of firepower, "but that doesn't mean it isn't true."

Jayne grabbed another half-empty bottle off the floor and poured some over his wound and the rest into his mouth, "You ain't the pilot" he said.

"Oh, you know what" said Harry shouting over the music, "You're probably after the bloke that was here before me."

"Before you," asked the Captain, "this isn't your room."

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment and then burst out laughing, "Nah."

"What's so funny," demanded Jayne.

"You," laughed Harry, "were going to hire an operative."

"What" the three asked confused.

"An operative" Harry laughed, "you know doesn't officially exist, deadly sort of fellow, you know operative."

Harry noticed that the three didn't get the joke so he walked over to the wall and with a bit of effort pulled a short bladed sword out of the wall and showed it to the three.

Mal was the only one to recognise it, it was the sword of the man who had tracked them throughout the Miranda incident, the man whose actions lead to the death of Wash and Shepherd Book.

"Where did you get this, Harry" growled the Captain.

"Duh," said Harry taking another long swig from the bottle, "the guy who had to room."

Seeing the state of the room in a new light along with the large amount of bloodstains that adorned the room as well as Harry, the Captain asked, "Where is he now?"

"Gone" Harry shrugged.

Zoë who had caught on asked, "Who killed him?"

Harry shook his head, "He wanted a good death, more than anything, so I didn't give it to him?"

"You let him go" said the Captain disbelieving.

"Don't worry, Captain" said Harry who was still shuffling around the room awkwardly, Harry pointed to the corner and said, "He's completely 'armless now."

As the three looked in the corner Harry continued to laugh madly at his joke, in the corner lay a severed arm in a pool of blood.

Harry looked worriedly at them, "Don't you get, it's a play on words. You know harmless and well you know."

The Captain whose knuckles were white gripping his lowered gun asked forcefully, "Where is he now, Harry?"

Harry scratching the back of his neck gestured over towards the open window and the trail of blood, "Think your new pilot's going to have some trouble steering with one arm."

Zoë inspected the window and to her disappointment there was a garbage skip below and she could see a distinct trail of blood leading away from the skip and back into the slums.

"What are you doing here?" asked Zoë suspiciously.

Despite his current state of inebriation Harry answered seriously, "Why do you think?"

"Wash" said the Captain.

"On the money there, Captain" nodded Harry.

The Captain was trying the process all this information when he saw something embedded into the floor, "And this is?" asked the Captain.

"Oh, that" said Harry as he peered over to what the Captain was referring to, "That was dear old lefty's party favour."

"Party favour" Zoë said losing patience with Harry.

"Had him dead to rights," said Harry as he demonstrated clumsily with a sword he picked up from the bed, "he wanted his good death, but he didn't want me to get away. Said he was done with the Alliance, thought it might make a difference to me, didn't stop him dropping the signal."

"Tracker" said the Captain moving over to the window searching for Alliance.

"Oh, again right on the money, here," said Harry tossing the Captain a sealed bottle, "crack it open before the other guests arrive."

"Guests" growled Jayne arming Vera, "What guests?"

"It was an operative issued tracker, high priority, it is Alliance protocol to send a strike team to its location and on a world like this," mused Harry, "think we can get maybe twenty of them down here, what do you think, Captain."

"I think you've gone 'round the bend," said the Captain, "Jayne, Zoë we have to hoof it."

"Now that's just rude, Captain" said Harry sitting on the failing bed and examining his assembled arsenal, "you gate crashed my party but that doesn't mean you can insult the host, and anyway it's no use."

Harry took another long swig and threw the near empty bottle against the wall shattering it, "The tracker has a fifteen minute response time, and I'd been here for about twelve and I'd also venture a guess that you've been here for about two, maybe two and a half."

"What the hell have you got us into, Harry" cursed Zoë as he armed her weapon.

"I didn't do anything, you guys just showed us," shouted Harry, "I thought they had showed up early when Jayne entered the room, sorry for the knife, but you know safety is everything, well obviously not your safety."

All four of them paused when the heard distant screams from other rooms in the building, Harry somehow in spite of all the empty bottles that lay scattered round the room had entered a militaristic attitude, no sloppy movements in his stance or slurred words, just seriousness.

"Looks like it is about that time," said Harry picked up a rather large assault rifle and peering out the window seeing that the others wouldn't be able to take the same exit as the armless operative.

* * *

Harry awoke when his skull smacked against the metal frame of a speeding mule and was subsequently somewhat humiliatingly knocked unconscious again when a bump in the road caused him to smack his skull against the same metal frame.

* * *

"No, no, no, no" yelled Harry.

The doctor was advancing on Harry with some sort of medical apparatus.

"Relax, Harry" said the doctor, his words were supposed to calming but he said them threateningly, "It's Dr. Tam, everything's fine."

Harry scrambled off the table, "I know who you are, doc."

Zoë was leaning up against the wall of the infirmary observing Harry's erratic movements.

Calming his breathing Harry tried to process what had happened but his mind was still clouded by the alcohol, with furrowed brows Harry asked, "What happened?"

"You passed out" said Simon.

"I put your grenades to use," said Zoë coolly.

"And then you passed out" said Simon.

"You weren't too steady on your feet and you got knocked out by the explosion," explained Zoë.

"Or you passed out," muttered Simon.

Harry sighed, he always cursed the vulnerability of his immortality that allowed him to be knocked unconscious, but then again its vulnerability is what allowed him to imbue alcohol without his advanced healing rendering it null.

"That's somewhat disappointing" admitted Harry, "narratively speaking of course, skipped out on the fight scene."

"You're still drunk," figured Zoë.

"Doesn't make it any less true," muttered Harry his eyes closed due to the throbbing in his head, "Are the others alive?"

"Yes," said Zoë again coolly.

"I'm sorry, you shouldn't have been there," said Harry.

Zoë lightly pushed herself away from the wall, "Why were you there?"

Harry shrugged his arms in the obvious, "Kill the operative."

"That didn't work out," said Zoë.

Harry replied, "He wanted it too much, worked out better."

"Why did you stay?" asked Zoë.

"I'm ambitious," Harry said as he reached behind Zoë for his pistols and knifes, "Sorry you lost your pilot, but he wouldn't have been a good fit, too much of a yes man."

Harry sighed, "And I'm sorry about Wash, and the Shepherd."

Zoë crossed her arms, "And you thought that killing the operative was revenge?"

Harry shrugged and shook his head, "Wash was my friend and when I found out I needed someone to blame, the operative was responsible for the Shepherd's death and indirectly responsible for Wash's, but indirectly was good enough."

Zoë didn't say anything and neither her expression nor posture showed an emotion, she was ice.

"Who is on board?" Harry asked.

"Myself," said the Captain as he walked into the infirmary, "these two, Kaylee, Jayne, Inara and River."

The Captain noticed a subtle flinch at the last two names, "You put yourself into something mighty stupid."

"I had it under control," muttered Harry.

"Yep, and that was why Jayne had to throw you out of the window into a dumpster and then carry you to the mule," scoffed the Captain.

"I didn't know you were going to be there," said Harry.

"And neither did we," said Zoë.

"Where are we heading?" asked Harry.

"Persephone," said the Captain, "Need to discuss with Badger about what he describes as 'good folk'".

"I take it I am free to leave when we make port, Captain?" asked Harry.

"You're free to go when we make port" said the Captain making to leave but turned back and handed Harry what looked like a melted bit of plastic that resembled modern art, "Your music box was the only causality, but it wasn… "

The Captain was cut off by the lights turning off. Simon was about to say something when the com lit up, "Reavers."

The single word that sounded over the com made Simon, Zoë, Harry and the Captain freeze, "They might not see us," suggested Simon hopefully.

The ship shuddered and the com lit up again, "They've roped us, Captain" said the voice of Kaylee.

All four of them sprang into action, Simon ran to the engine room in hopes of helping Kaylee while Zoë, the Captain and Harry went to the bridge where River was.

"Two" said Zoë looking out the view panel.

"Three" said Harry and River in unison.

While Harry's feelings of contempt for River hadn't dulled, he didn't had the luxury of bringing those emotions to the surface.

"The big one is two ships, likely tangled but I think they may be able to detach," said Harry.

"Can we shake the harpoon, sir?" Zoë asked the Captain

The Captain who has sitting in the pilot's chair replied, "I think they've got us hooked and just our luck it's the big one that has us."

Harry leaned over the Captain an engaged the com, "Anyone who isn't immediately needed get down to the cargo bay."

Harry ran down the hall to the catwalk practically jumped down the stairs in urgency. Harry heaved a fuel drum of into the airlock and on the return he saw Zoë, Simon, Jayne and Inara making their ways down towards him, Harry supposed that River and the Captain were needed on the bridge and Kaylee in the engine room.

"Zoë, Jayne, help me move these drums into the airlock," Harry shouted urgently, "Inara, Simon find some cord, a lot of it."

The four did as instructed Harry supposed out of the fact that they had didn't know what else to do.

As Jayne heaved a fuel drum he grunted, "You know we ain't got no cannons, we can't make these go boom."

"I know," grunted Harry as he moved another drum.

"Then what good is if dumping our emergency fuel?" asked Simon.

Harry ignored Simon, "Okay, that's more than enough fuel, you need to tie them up," said Harry to Simon and Inara.

"I don't understand," said Inara confusedly.

Harry hadn't met Inara's eyes since he came aboard, but at her question he accidently found himself looking straight into them.

"Just, just…," Harry swallowed, "Tie up the drums and seal the inner doors, but don't dump them." Harry left the others doing as he instructed and ran back up to the bridge.

"Harry, what the hell are you doing?" asked the Captain as Harry met him in the hall.

"We can't ditch them" said Harry as he went to move passed the Captain.

The Captain stopped Harry, "We need to arm up," he said, "The only hope is to fight them off."

"We can't fight off three Reaver raiding ships, Captain," said Harry, "I can get us away, if you let me."

The Captain didn't say anything and was still blocking Harry's path, "If you do this wrong, we're all dead," said the Captain solemnly.

"If I do this wrong, then we can still try to fight them off," countered Harry not looking away from the Captain.

The Captain with a sigh despite himself said, "What do you need?"

"Kaylee in the engine room and River out of the bridge," said Harry.

The Captain nodded, he and Harry in agreement to go out fighting. Harry sat himself down in… Wash's seat, he didn't take notice to what the Captain said to River but he soon took her seat.

"I don't need a co-pilot, Captain" said Harry concentrating on the position of the Reaver ships.

"Just do what you need to do," said the Captain his tone saying that there wasn't any room for argument.

Harry activated the coms, "Jayne standby the airlock release, Kaylee prepare for full burn, the rest of you strap in," said Harry as he himself strapped in and the Captain followed suit.

"Captain?" asked Kaylee nervously over the coms.

"You have your orders," said the Captain.

Harry manoeuvred Serenity at a steep angle downwards at a spin making it so the rear of Serenity was perpendicular with the side of the dual River ship.

"Okay, Jayne, prepare the release the payload," said Harry as he readied the controls, "in 3, 2, 1, now Jayne."

As Jayne opened the airlock, Harry lurched Serenity whipping her tail sending the payload towards the rear of the Reaver ship.

"Harry, you know that without enough air, it ain't going to explode," said the Captain as he and Harry watched the slow movement of the payload on the monitor towards the ship that they were tethered to.

"Kaylee, prepare for full burn on my mark, and Captain" said Harry, "those ships are running without core containment."

"That helps us, how?" asked the Captain.

"Without core containment, those death traps are bound to be pumping excess oxygen," said Harry, his eyes not leaving the monitor, "and where have we sent our payload?"

"The propulsion system," said the Captain with realisation.

"On the money once again Captain," nodded Harry, "Kaylee, you ready?"

"As we'll ever be," squeaked Kaylee over the coms.

"Full burn in 3, 2, 1, now," Harry shouted over the intercom.

On the "2" the payload collided with the dual Reaver ship's propulsion system and with them operating without core containment the heat that they were giving off ignited the roped fuel drums and blew apart the rear of the ship.

"We're still hooked," Zoë yelled over the coms.

As Serenity engaged full burn, Harry whipped the ship sharply dislodging the harpoon from the structurally weakened Reaver ship. Once they were free Harry quickly engaged the thrusters and rabbited away from the second Reaver ship who couldn't follow as it was blocked by the wreckage of the dual ship.

For a moment neither the Captain nor Harry spoke, Harry leant back in the pilot's chair and let out a sigh of relief and felt the unfamiliar muscles of his face contorting into a genuine smile.

Harry was broken out of a trance of blissfulness when Inara's voice sounded out of the coms, "I take it by the lack of screaming that we're safe."

Taking a deep breath, Harry leant over the com, "We're clear."

Harry heard whoops of happiness from down in the ship and the Captain placed a congratulatory hand on Harry's shoulder.

"What are you doing," the Captain asked nervously, Harry was furiously plotting a course in the NAVSAT trajectory system.

"It won't take long for the other Reaver ship to follow and if they were already operating in units, I don't doubt they'll call for reinforcements, they don't like losing to their prey," said Harry, "I'm taking us somewhere safe, lay low for a spell."

The Captain leaned over to see where Harry had plotted, "Tanna" said the Captain, "Never heard of it."

Harry stood up and moved to the lockers on the walls of the bridge, "That's the point, Captain," said Harry as he pulled a bucket out of the locker, "Now, Captain, if that's all, I think I need to throw up."

As Harry walked down the hall with his bucket, the Captain yelled out to Harry as he moved into the pilot's seat, "Alcohol is the devil's brew, Harry."

All the Captain got in response was a horrible retching sound.

* * *

While Harry was searching in the infirmary he knew that the crew were probably going to approach him, it would be about ninety minutes until they reached Tanna, ninety minutes with seven people who all had different attitudes towards him. Harry turned when he heard someone knock on the frame of the infirmary's door.

"You got my baby groaning and moaning, Harry," said Kaylee shaking her head, "This ship ain't built to whipping 'round and such."

Opening another cabinet and looking inside, Harry smirked, "She held together well enough, managed to take out two Reaver raiding ships and ditch the third. I think that's worth some groaning and moaning."

"Suppose so," grinned Kaylee, "That was some fancy manoeuvring you did back there."

"Uh huh," said Harry turning to Kaylee, "Have you guys moved the hydration packs?"

"Don't know," said Kaylee who had heard Harry's retching and was taking notice of how dazed and glassy his normally bright eyes were. While Harry could sober up with magic, a hydration pack surpassed magic in speed.

Learning against the bench Harry took in Kaylee, she was certainly dirty, oil and grime were common place and seemed to be ingrained into the patterns of her clothing. She seemed happier since the last time he'd seen her, Harry supposed that was due to the 'celebrating' he had heard from Simon and her in the euphoria of their escape.

"How are you, nowadays?" Harry asked.

Kaylee smirked slyly, "Don't you know?", Kaylee noticed Harry's confusion and elaborated, "The Captain's told tales 'bout you," again Harry looked confused and Kaylee was become impatient with Harry's lack of comprehension, "enough tales to fill a book, a book that was be an interesting _read_ ," Kaylee emphasised the last word greatly.

Harry nodded in comprehension, but didn't want to cut Kaylee any slack, "Ask what you want to ask, Kaylee."

"But you already know what I'm going to ask," said Kaylee.

Harry looked directly into Kaylee's in the hope that she would know that he wasn't lying, "Kaylee, I'm not reading you."

Kaylee unconsciously relaxed her posture at Harry's statement, "That's a comfort."

Simon walked into the infirmary checking his workspace and looking miffed at how Harry had searched for his quarry, "But you could if you wanted to," said Simon, "Read us, you can control it."

Knowing what Simon was going to ask Harry turned away and keep searching the draws and cabinets.

"Can you?" Simon asked again.

Harry half-shrugged, half nodded.

"Can you teach it?" asked Simon seriously.

"Didn't think you'd trust me with your sister, doctor" said Harry avoiding the question, "You know after what happened."

"After everything," said Simon closing the cabinets and draws that Harry had left open, "We've seen her do things, she… ah, she once took out two dozen Reavers by self, once she got the Miranda secret out of her head, she controls the triggers better, and with the things we saw he do, your story made a lot more sense."

"If it was the secret that was digging into her," said Harry, "She shouldn't need teaching if she has it under control."

"She's loads better, Harry," said Kaylee, "and she ain't fighting or not knowin' where she's at anymore."

"But she still picks up everything," Simon cut in, "and that would be hard for anyone to take."

Harry nodded as he moved around the room, "I am not helping your sister, doctor."

"Why?" asked a voice that sent uncomfortable shivers down the immortal's spine.

Harry turned to face River who was standing in the doorway of the infirmary, it seemed she hadn't change her taste in wardrobe. There she stood in two sizes to big heavy black cargo boots, dark patterned short-skirted sundress and a kaftan kimono tied around her waist in contact with her hair that fell to the small of her back.

"You know why," said Harry coarsely.

"That wasn't her fault" tried Kaylee.

"It was her choice," shouted Harry angrily, "She might've not been able control it, but she damn well knew how to direct it. It wasn't the ability that made her do what she did." Harry turned to River, "It was your curiosity that made you sneak into my room and pillage my mind when it was at its weakest."

"Pillage?" said Kaylee confused at the context, not the statement.

Harry sighed, still not wavering from River's gaze but no longer referring to her, "View then, she broke into my mind and viewed as she pleased," said Harry, now directing his words at River, "you purposefully invaded my mind and saw my own memories, mine, not yours or anyone else's."

"She didn't have control, Harry" reasoned Simon.

"She had enough control, doctor" said Harry, "like I said before, she had enough control to direct it in a way which let her see what see wanted to see, to let her see what she had no right to see. My head is my property and you," Harry turned back to River, "had absolutely no god damn business being in my head, just because you could see into the other doesn't mean you should have been, you never had to right to look into my head and see things I didn't want anyone to ever see."

Harry turned away from the three, Simon heard Harry mutter what he thought was, "Things I don't even let myself see, anymore."

"So you won't teach, River" said Kaylee.

"I don't even want him to teach me," cried River in indignation of not having gotten a word in.

"That right," began Harry in obviously passive aggressive tone, "She's already used my head as a picture book, I'm sure she got all the information she needs."

"The sarcasm veils scars," stated River.

"Oh, I see she still hasn't got that phrasing down pat yet, and I wasn't being sarcastic," said Harry.

"No you were being mean," said Kaylee.

"I wasn't being mean, Kaylee" sighed Harry, "Despite the fact that I had every right to be mean, I wasn't being mean. If I wanted to be mean I'd say that I won't help the psychic. Oh, damn, I guess I've picked up River's screwed up phrasing because it didn't mean psychic, I mean psycho."

Simon looked at Harry in scorn taking River with him out of the infirmary. Harry felt bad at what he said, but he couldn't take it back.

Kaylee gave Harry a pitying look, "There weren't no need for you to say those things."

"Kaylee," struggled Harry, "There a lot of things that I'd like to forget from my life and some things I treasured, but unfortunately in my case the whole lot of bad overshadows the little good and I have the ability to shield myself from them, but River she… she took it upon herself to go looking through my memories, my secrets, my nightmares to satisfy her curiosity about me, she committed the ultimate breach of trust."

Kaylee's face was stricken with confusion and sadness, "I understand that must be hard, but River is in pain. I'd have thought that you'd be the sort'a fella who'd be able to put that behind you to help someone in need."

"This isn't a petty argument," said Harry, "The things she saw, Kaylee, are things I don't let myself remember, for a reason, it isn't as simple as forgiveness."

"And your feelings for her don't make you want to help her," asked Kaylee.

Harry gave Kaylee a pained look, "Just because I had, emphasis on had, Kaylee, just because I had a thing for River doesn't matter in this sense. I'm not helping her because… because, Christ Kaylee, I'm just not going to help her. That doesn't take away from what I think of her, Kaylee, I liked River, but a person is defined in part by their actions, and her actions spoke volumes."

Kaylee pursed her lips and pushed herself off the bench, she knew that nothing she could say would change the way Harry saw things.

As she disappeared into Simon's bunk, Harry yelled to the doctor, "Where the hell are the hydration packs, doctor."

"We're out" yelled Simon back coldly.

* * *

As Harry moved up the stairs into the hall of the crew's bunks, the Captain and Zoë pressed themselves against the wall of Serenity. They were standing next to a vent that led down to the infirmary, and this vent had the nasty habit of carrying the voices from the infirmary up to where the Captain and Zoë stood.

"It's a good idea," said the Captain. He looked at Zoë, but she didn't respond, "isn't it?" the Captain added uncertainly.

"I don't know, sir" said Zoë as she and the Captain walked down into the kitchen.

"Well he dismembered our replacement pilot," smirked the Captain.

Zoë's eyes darkened, "Should've killed him."

"I got some thoughts similar to that myself," the Captain admitted.

"He's good" grunted Zoë, "Wash always said Harry was as good as him in a pinch," she smirked before continuing, "Always made a note that he was just a little bit better than Harry, though."

The Captain smirked at the memory, "Yeah, and not everyone can shake Reavers like Harry did."

Zoë nodded, "It was quick thinking, but even if you offer him the job, there is no guarantee that he'd accept. And if he did, no doubt there'd be some comments from the others. He said himself that he wasn't going to help River, you heard it too Captain, those feelings might be troublesome if they were both on the ship."

"They'd figure it out," said the Captain certainly.

"How so?" asked Zoë.

"They both want to be here, even if Harry won't admit it," said the Captain.

"Sir, there is the other issue of Harry himself, we all know that he is good, but that's all we really know about him," reasoned Zoë, she wasn't trying to dissuade the Captain but was trying to get him to see it from both sides.

The Captain said calmly, "Man deserves his secrets. As long as he has your back when the time comes."

Zoë looked at the Captain seriously, "And how do you know that Harry will have your back when the time comes, sir?"

Looking equally as serious at Zoë, the Captain said, "Because that's the sort of man he is."

* * *

Harry kicked his boot against the hatch.

"Come in," Jayne grunted.

Jayne looked up expecting to see Mal or the doc or anyone else.

"Do you have hydration packs?" Harry asked.

Jayne, not forgetting that Harry was a reader shook his head. Harry nodded and was about to climb the ladder when he saw something.

"That's my sword," exclaimed Harry moving over to where Jayne had placed it.

"Dropped it," said Jayne who had regained his composure, "in the fight." As Jayne remembered once again that Harry could read his mind, he added, "Just keeping it safe, was going to give it back to you."

"Are you reading me mind?" Jayne asked.

"Sure" said Harry as he climbed the ladder with the sword in his hand.

* * *

"It's tough," admitted Simon to Kaylee, they were both sitting in his bunk while River slept on his bed, "I understand what he's saying, but River needs help, she's in pain."

Kaylee nodded, her head against Simon's shoulder, "If someone broke into my head and saw everything I never wanted to tell anyone, I wouldn't be doing them any favours."

"But if he found a way to control it, that is incredible," said Simon as he rubbed Kaylee's hand, "I just wish River was able to, I just want her to be able to be who she wants to be."

"And Harry might be able to help, I understand, but we also don't know if it can be taught," mused Kaylee.

Simon looked over at River's sleeping form and sighed, "Anything that can be learned, can be taught."

"But he said he won't do it," said Kaylee, "it's different than River, but he is in pain too from what she did. They were close before, they were friends, she and him used to able to talk, but that always turned into her trying to kill, but Harry always took it."

Simon nodded, "But she went too far." Simon looked at River and digested Kaylee's comment about River and Harry's closeness, "River and Harry were never, … you don't think… "

Kaylee laughed at Simon, "They weren't sweeties."

"Good," Simon relaxed.

"Probably," Kaylee shrugged.

* * *

Harry internally cursed himself for what he was about to do, he raised his fist to knock but was saved the trouble when it opened of its own accord.

"Nice sword," mused Inara.

A little taken aback by her sudden appearance and her state of appearance, it seemed she had changed since the Reaver incident, she was wearing a flowing red and gold gown with similarly coloured bands in her raven hair.

"Jayne thought so too," said Harry.

"Do you wish to enter?" asked Inara gesturing to her shuttle's interior.

"Sure" said Harry following her inside, "Is was wondering if you had any… "

Inara cut Harry off, "Hydration packs," at Harry's look she elaborated, "I heard you yelling at the doctor."

Harry didn't respond only nodded.

"Is this a trade?" asked Inara, "The Sword for the hangover cure."

Harry smirked, "I'm not even sure I need it anymore, taken so long to find one."

Despite herself Inara smiled, "It is of no consequence, I don't carry hydration packs."

Harry nodded and made to leave, but Inara spoke.

"Harry," started Inara, "Would you sit?"

Harry nodded silently and sat down where Inara was gesturing.

"I owe you an apology" Inara struggled, "Back at Nandi's, she had told me about you and… and Kass in confidence, and then in the morning I abused her trust and used it as ammunition against you."

As Inara took a deep breath after speeding through her sentence, Harry's grip tightened around the sword at the mention of Kass.

Inara expected Harry to shout at her but he spoke firmly instead, "What happened that morning? You were crying."

Inara turned away for a fraction of a second, "I saw Mal… the Captain leaving Nandi's room."

Harry nodded processing the information, "And you came running to me."

Inara put on a smile that was a little too forced, "Many would take compliment that a companion would run towards then."

Harry gave Inara a soft smile at her deflection, "Many would feel something else knowing that spending a night with another woman would send a companion running away from them and towards another man."

Inara grimaced at Harry, she always seemed unable to maintain the companion façade when he was around, "Nevertheless, I apologise for my actions."

Harry nodded again, Inara noticed that he was nodding more than talking in this conversation, "I won't say that I didn't mean to yell at you, because I did, but I will say that I wish I hadn't. It's just… I hadn't talked about… her in a long time and when you bought her up, a lot of emotions came to the surface and I saw red."

The two sat in silence, unable to think of something else to say.

"It's… " began Inara awkwardly, "It really is a nice sword."

Internally smirking Harry handed the sword to her.

"It's fine craftsmanship," said Inara as she examined the sword, "Perhaps a bit to ornate to be functional."

"It gets the job done" replied Harry.

"It is rare to find a weapon like this," said Inara gesturing to the ruby encrusted hilt, "so far out in the black."

"I didn't steal it," said Harry getting up.

Inara quickly spoke wanting to correct herself, "No, I never thought you did," she handed Harry back the sword.

As Harry pressed the door release button, Inara asked, "The name below the hilt 'Gryffindor' is that your surname?"

"Potter" Harry said with a pause, "My name is Harry Potter."

And with that Harry exited the shuttle, leaving Inara to her thoughts. Closing the shuttle door Harry went to make his way up to the bridge, but met the Captain and Zoë on the catwalk.

"What were you doing in Inara's shuttle?" asked the Captain.

"It seems, sir," Zoë began with a rare smile, "That Harry was showing Inara his sword."

Harry sighed, "There is also a joke about Jayne grabbing my sword but I don't have the energy, we need to prep for landing."

The Captain and Zoë nodded at led Harry to the bridge, "What's so special about this 'Tanna' that will help us hide from the Reavers," asked Zoë as the Captain and Harry sat themselves in the co-pilot and pilot seats respectively.

"Reaver's don't like vegetated planets, they like dunes and sand, they are uncomfortable with trees," said Harry as he pointed to the clearly vegetated moon that they could just see in the distance, "And it was the closest place that we could reach without the Reavers catching us, without core containment they are fast, but hopefully they will just sail on past the moon with trees."

"Makes… some sense" said the Captain as he watched Harry enter the entry sequence into Serenity with ease.

"Plus they wouldn't land here even if they wanted to," said Harry.

"Why is that?" asked Zoë as she watched Harry work Serenity's controls like a professional.

"Magic" shrugged Harry causing Zoë and the Captain to smirk at his joke.

* * *

Harry's mind was racing as Kaylee activated the opening of the cargo bay door. Harry, Zoë, Inara, Simon, the Captain, River and Jayne walked out of Serenity into Tanna's fresh air. A few metres away from the ship was Pup wagging his tail frantically at the sight of his master. Pup was being held back by a pretty Asian woman who was struggling significantly to hold the energetic hound's collar.

The group followed Harry as he walked to the woman, "It's good to see you," said the woman as Harry kissed her cheek.

Harry bent down to pat Pup, "Thanks for letting us crash here, Di."

"It's no problem," smiled Di as she awkwardly waved to the motley bunch standing sheepishly before her as Harry scratched Pup's ears.

"We thank you for the hospitality, … " said the Captain prompting for her name.

"Diana," she replied shaking the Captain's hand, "But everybody calls me Di."

"It's nice to meet you, Di" the Captain said as he rocked on the balls of his feet, "I'm Captain Malcolm Reynolds," he said gesturing to himself and then to Zoë, "this is my first mate, Zoë, our mechanic Kaylee, Simon our doctor, Inara our resident ambassador and that's Jayne and River at the end."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all, you best come inside, the rains should be coming any moment," started Di but her focus shifted when a small mass rocketed past her and into Harry.

"Harry" exclaimed the young girl in excitement as Harry hugged her enthusiastically.

"Hey, there little one" said Harry as he stood up with the young girl still attached to his torso, "Did you get my birthday present?"

The young girl nodded into Harry's chest.

"Yes, she got all five of them, Harry," Di said sternly.

"Five years old warrants five presents," smirked Harry.

"You spoil her" reprimanded Di, "Now come on, I don't want to get caught in the rain."

The group followed Di through a small township while Harry tried to hold off the jumping Pup while the child clung to chest.

"It's where you left it" Di said as she pointed to a small garage.

Harry nodded and detached the child, "You go with your Mum, I'll meet you in there in a sec," while Harry entered the garage, Di gestured for the others to follow her inside.

"Go on, sit down," said Di gesturing to a large table in the centre of a wood panelled room, "I've just made breakfast."

Jayne immediately sat down at started pulling food towards him, while the others took their seats.

"We really can't thank you enough," said Zoë.

"It's just breakfast" shrugged the little girl as she accidently choked on her food.

"Lee, don't talk with your mouth-full," Di reprimanded.

"Yes," said Simon as he took a plate, "it was kind of you to let us hide out here, not many would."

"This town owes Harry a lot," said Di as placed a pitcher of juice on the table, "and any friends of his, are friends of ours."

"Do you get many ships here?" asked Kaylee placing food on a plate a passing it down the table.

"Not many," said Di sitting down, "We get supplies every few weeks and a few transport ships."

Lee sniggered, "Harry crashed a ship in the forest once."

"Really" said Zoë, she seemed more at ease with children than the rest of the crew.

"Yep," Lee nodded importantly, "right into Jayslip's creek."

"Ching Ahn Jing Yi Dien Xiao Mei Mei" Di said sharply cuffing Lee over her head.

"Starting to rethink your offer there, sir" said Zoë slyly.

"What offer?" asked Jayne food spilling over of his mouth as he spoke.

Di seeing Jayne's rudeness said sternly, "If you act like a dog, you can go and eat with them."

Lee sniggered and Di gave her a warning look.

"What offer?" asked Simom as he spooned some eggs onto his toast.

The Captain deflected the question gesturing that he had food in his mouth.

"Captain offered Harry the pilot's seat once we landed," Zoë said coolly.

As the assembled group all started to voice their opinions, the Captain raised a hand to silence them and swallowed, "Yes, I asked Harry if he'd consider re-joining Serenity, we all know that we have been struggling without a proper pilot and we've all seen what he can do, today especially, I was struggling to think a reasons why I shouldn't offer him the job. I know y'all have your piece you want to say, but Harry hasn't said yes, said he had to think on it some, so let's calm down and enjoy our breakfast." And with that the Captain pulled the bacon towards him in a finality on the topic.

"So… " squeaked Lee from her lower position on the table, "How long are you staying?"

"Half-day, maybe" Zoë told Lee, but turned to Di, "If that sits well with you of course."

"Stay as long as you need," smiled Di and turned to Lee, "Lee, can you go tell Harry that there won't be any food left if he doesn't hurry."

As the crew and their host watched young Lee's retreating form exit the house, Kaylee said, "She's precious."

"That she is," mused Di as she took a sip of her juice, "and if you wouldn't mind, could you not let her hear about the," she mouthed _Reavers_ , "don't want to give her nightmares."

"Of course," said Inara as she poured herself some tea from the steaming pot.

"How old is she?" asked Simon.

"Turned five two months back," smiled Di, "she thinks that because she's older now that she can do everything the older kids do, the pastor caught her last week trying to start Harry's motorcycle, but knowing Harry he is probably congratulating her and teaching her how to do it right now."

"She emulates" said River quietly.

"That she does, and she has Harry wrapped around her little finger," Di nodded, "He keeps his bike in the shed sometimes and last year she asked Harry to teach her how to pick a lock, for educational purposes of course, and of course Harry didn't see anything wrong with that, he thought that a four-year old would forget it pretty soon, but she didn't, and when Harry came to visit he found his bike in pieces, experimenting on it is what she said she was doing."

The crew laughed as they ate, "No doubt Harry is trying fix whatever she's done with it this time," said Di.

"If you don't mind me asking," started Inara, "is Harry, Lee's… "

Di shook her head in amusement before Inara could finish her question, "No, no, me and Harry ain't never been together. I met him way back when he ran with my brother Damon, thick as thieves they were."

"Does Damon live on Tanna?" Simon asked.

Di shook her head sorrowfully as she collected the crew's dirty plates together, "Damon passed long ago close to ten years now."

"I'm sorry" said Simon genuinely.

"No matter, Lee came along few years later, she and Harry are all the family I need," Di said as she placed the dirty plates in the sink, "and speak of the devil," said Di cheerily seeing Lee came inside, judging by the dampness of her clothes the rain had started, "where's Harry?"

"He said he needed to put the seat back on his bike because despite my thoughts on the matter it would be a bit hard to ride in the future," said Lee with her eyes scrunched trying to recall the message, "and he said he wasn't feeling too good and didn't want any food and then he muttered something about moderation."

"That so," mused Di turning to the crew, "Well, there is water in the tap and the couches out in the other room ain't so uncomfortable, I'm sure you need some rest after flying through the night."

"Thanks," grunted Jayne who was already eyeing the most comfortable looking couch.

"We'll help you wash up," offered Zoë nudging the Captain to agree.

Di smiled as walked over to the sink, "I ain't the sort to turn away an offer like that."

While Di and Zoë washed up the plates and glasses, Inara and the Captain dried and replaced them in their cupboards.

"So what living do you lot make for yourself?" asked Di as she scrubbed a bowl.

"Transport," said Zoë, "Cargo mostly."

"I take it that your work isn't strictly legal," Di mused coyly.

"How did you… ?" asked Mal.

Di smirked, "Ain't Harry's style to go legit, I met Harry was I was a teenager and ever since I don't think I've ever seen Harry doing something that doesn't piss of some person or another."

"Really?" asked Inara.

"Most like," nodded Zoë, "Yeah, when Harry and Damon ran together they were making a bit of noise, see. Well, they got on the radar of someone called Niska, never met him myself but from what Damon told me he wasn't a good man or anything resembling a good man."

"What did they do for Niska?" asked Inara as she dried a tall glass.

Di smirked, "They were running this scam of sorts, Niska would either give them cargo or get to steal something and he would make them take it a buyer and bring back the cash."

"I don't get the scam," said Zoë confused.

"Well, Niska only cared about the bottom line, he wasn't interested in being a middle man, he never spoke to his buyers. So Harry and Damon would take the cargo and sell it to a third party, a man by the name of Druce, so they would take the stuff to Druce who'd give them whatever Niska was expecting, but he would then make sure the cargo got into the hands of the people who actually needed it." Di explained.

The Captain nodded, "So Niska got his money even though Harry and Damon gave the goods to the wrong people and because he never dealt with buyers, Niska didn't know the difference."

"Exactly" nodded Di, "Simplistically profitable."

"That's quite an operation," mused Inara.

"Yeah," said Di as she pulled the ship's plug out, "'Sept Niska started to like Harry and Damon too much, you see they were his most dependable men, always got him the money on time without fail, so Niska was looking to make them his lieutenants, but that would've moved them out of transport and into more unseemly positions. Harry and Damon were never going to work for Niska in that sense, hell they actually were never working for Niska in the first place, they made up some excuse about not wanting to leave the skies or something, left on good terms with the bastard, Niska even sent 'his boys' Christmas presents."

As Di was finishing her story she put the fruit peels into a small machine and uncapped a clear bottle of liquid, pouring a small amount in the fuel cartridge and let the machine mulch up the waste. But as the machine mulched Zoë's faced turned a sickly shade.

"Where is your bathroom?" Zoë asked quickly.

Once Di had pointed Zoë rocketed inside and a retching sound was heard, "What happened?" Inara asked worriedly.

The Captain eyed the clear bottle and sniffed it before putting it's cap on, "It's nothing, she's fine" he reassured Inara.

Di looked from the bottle to where Zoë had disappeared to, "Oh," she said in realisation, "How far along is she?"

"What?" Inara almost shouted.

"'Bout four months," said the Captain calmly, "How did you know?"

"I was the same way with Lee, any smell of alcohol sent me packing," nodded Di.

"Wait, what, Zoë's pregnant," exclaimed Inara in a serious whisper.

Di covered her mouth, "I'm sorry, I thought you all must've known."

"She told me and the doctor," said the Captain, "Didn't want any else to know until she was further along."

"Well, for four months she's hardly showing," said Di.

Inara still confused asked, "Why did the bottle make her sick?"

"It's methylated spirits, honey," said Di, "We use it to fuel the composter. Must've made her nauseous."

"It's why we needed a proper pilot," explained the Captain, "She didn't wanted to do everything she could to make it easier."

Inara had to sit down at the revelation, "It's like a little bit of Wash is still with us."

Di looked confused, "What happened to the father?"

"He was killed," swallowed the Captain, "Shy of five months back."

"That must be tough," mused Di, "I was the same way, Lee's dad skipped out before he knew I was going to have a baby, but she seems tough, and with a family as big as yours, I'm sure she'll be fine."

The Captain who still hadn't got used to the idea of his first mate being pregnant with the child of his deceased friend was reeling from the conversation as he truly realised that an actual baby would be coming.

Di nudged Inara worriedly, "I think I broke him."

* * *

Music played as Harry lay on the dirt ground of the shed trying to reattach the fuel line to his bike while Pup lay in an extremely oversized pillowed basket in the corner watching. Perhaps it was the loud music, Harry's position or the pounding rain on the tin roof, but Harry didn't notice the shed door open and a person enter.

Inara watched in amusement as Harry on his back had his knees bent upward and was tapping his feet awkwardly to the loudly playing song:

 _"_ _or the growing need for speed and novocaine._

 _So I worked across the country from end to end,_

 _Tried to find a place I could settle down, where my mixed up life could mend._

 _I held a job on an oil-rig, flying choppers when I could,_

 _But the night life nearly drove me 'round the bend._

 _And I've travelled round the world from year to year,_

 _And each one found me aimless, one more year the worse for wear._

 _And I've been back to South East Asia, but he answer sure ain't there,_

 _But I'm driftin' north to check things out again._

 _And the last plane out of… "_

Inara couldn't contain herself as Harry kicked his legs out mimicking the points of drumming. At the sound of laughter Harry jerked hitting his head on the underside of his bike as he tried to scramble out from underneath. Quickly leaning past Inara, Harry turned a dial of heavy looking box extinguishing the music.

"You know there's such thing as raincoats," smirked Harry as he took in Inara' appearance.

She had obviously breached the heavy rainfall as she went from the house to the shed, her gown looked almost sheer as it clung to her body and her hair which usually stood in ringlets was plastered somehow still attractively to her face and neck.

"Yes," Inara said as she nudged Harry's boots, "I heard about that the same time someone told me their feet sometimes moved oddly, at the time I thought it was crazy but now I see its contagious." She had tried to say this sarcastically, but the effect was marred by her shivering.

Harry moved away to grab a blanket and threw it at Inara which she gratefully draped over her shoulders.

"I liked the music," Inara said awkwardly as she noticed Harry grimace slightly, "I've never heard anything like it."

Harry nodded, "Must be travelling in the wrong circles then," he offered weakly.

Trying to think of something interesting to say and drawing a blank, Inara settled on saying anything, "Sure does rain a lot here."

Harry laughed as packed up his tools, "Weather, we're talking about the weather. Christ we're really scrapping the bottle of the barrel for conversation. Yeah well, that's why Tanna has so much vegetation, a lot of sun and a lot of rain."

Inara smiled at Harry, "Heard you might join the crew."

"The Captain offered me Wash's seat," Harry nodded.

"Are you going to take it?" asked Inara somewhat impatiently.

"It's Wash's seat" Harry said weakly.

"It's a pilot's seat, Harry" Inara said kindly, "Nobody thinks you're replacing Wash, nobody ever could."

"I miss him, you know" said Harry as he fiddled with a spanner.

"That makes sense," replied Inara.

Harry nodded, not meeting her eye, "I had a lot of people die around me and it's sad, but that's a part of life you know, but Wash's was hard."

"Because you weren't there" said Inara placing her hand on Harry's arm as he sat himself on the work bench she had sat up on.

"Should've been," said Harry, "Should've been there."

Inara moved her hand from Harry's arm to his hand as they both stared forward at the opposite side of the shed.

"When I found out, I didn't really know what to do," said Harry softly, "Should I go to his grave, should I wave Zoë and you guys, should I rage a war against the Alliance."

"What did you do?" Inara asked.

"I was here when I found out, about two months ago. Left Pup and my bike with Di, she was worried about me, thought I was going to do something stupid," said Harry.

"That'd be so unlike you," joked Inara as she rested her head on Harry's shoulder.

Harry laughed, "Didn't help that I drank a bottle of whiskey and told her that I was going to go kill the man who killed my brother."

Inara felt sorry for Harry when he referred to Wash as his brother, "Zoë said you cut off the operatives arm with your sword."

"He was the sort of man who wanted to fall in battle," said Harry, "Disabling him hurt him more than death. Oh, and did Zoë also tell you that they were going to interview the operative for the pilot job."

Inara smirked into Harry's shoulder, "Yes, she did. Seems like he turned to a life a crime to escape the Alliance. Little did he know he should've been worried about escaping you."

Harry felt Inara shiver against him and reached for another blanket draping it over both of their shoulders.

"So are you going to accept Mal's offer," Inara asked as they both stared across the room not having met each other's eyes since they'd been sitting.

"I don't know" Harry shrugged.

"Because of River" Inara guessed.

"That's one reason," Harry said.

"I think," began Inara, "You just have to decide whether your negative feelings outweigh the positives that could come from taking the job."

"That's fair" nodded Harry as he rubbed his arms, "Jesus, it's gotten cold in here."

Inara who knew she was making Harry colder due to that she was still soaking wet and they were sharing blankets said, "You could go over and turn the heater up."

"So could you," said Harry.

Inara reluctantly push herself off the work bench and turned the heater up, "You know," she said, "You're going to take the job, Harry."

"Why's that" said Harry in amusement.

"Because you smiling," she said as she rubbing her arms trying to get warm, "You know, Harry, we should return inside, it's warmer there."

Harry smirked at Inara as he walked over to her and wrapped his blanket around both of them, "But you're in here."

* * *

The following evening the crew of Serenity were moving through the mud towards their ship.

"You know you're welcome here anytime" smiled Di.

"That's much appreciated," the Captain said.

As the crew filed inside Serenity, the Captain who was about to close the cargo bay door saw Harry standing on the ramp.

"You coming with?" the Captain asked.

Harry threw his bags into the cargo hold and Pup ran past both of them inside the ship.

The Captain smiled and started to walk towards the stairs with Harry following behind him, "Good" said the Captain, "Because I aim to misbehave."

 **THE END.**

 ** _If you're reading this I thank you for not giving up on my story and reaching the end. Congratulations on slogging it through. Well, this is the final chapter of Immortality in the Verse, at least that is until Immortality in the Verse, Part II which hasn't been written as of yet. Hopefully you'll get to read it before I die, or at least until I can think up a plot or have sought enough inspiration from this stories reviews. Keep an eye out for any other stories I might right, and if you are like me and reeling at the lack of Harry Potter/Firefly stories, you should try to write your own, that is what I did. I'd like to let all who read my story and especially all those who reviewed and commented on it know that I appreciated their input and I hope that my story turned out okay in their eyes. Alright then, be terrific and everything._**

 ** _BilleJean476._**


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